


swipe left for love

by tatoeba



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Flirting, M/M, Meet-Cute, Sort Of, Tinder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-17
Updated: 2020-04-17
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:54:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 50,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23704936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tatoeba/pseuds/tatoeba
Summary: The last thing Kyungsoo expects while using Tinder is for the guy he just swiped left on to be standing right behind him.
Relationships: Byun Baekhyun/Do Kyungsoo | D.O
Comments: 88
Kudos: 628





	swipe left for love

**Author's Note:**

> hello ur friendly neighborhood baeksoo bot is back. i started this fic way back in september and i had so much trouble finishing it but it’s here now, finally. oh my god. i’m so glad it’s done lmao i might be crying right now. i don’t know how this fic ended up so long but here we are and i really hope u all enjoy it. 
> 
> thank u to my wonderful beta bianca who has had to hear me cry about this fic for way too long and came up with the title, and also to alex, who helped beta as a second pair of eyes when i was going crazy trying to finish this. seriously thank u both for all ur suggestions and getting me to cut my longass sentences and paragraphs down lmao i love u ❤️
> 
> thank u also to my tlist and people on cc who have sent me a lot of encouraging messages in regards to this fic, i’ve struggled with it for a long time and all of ur support made it worth pushing through to the finish line. 
> 
> this fic is inspired by this [viral tweet](https://twitter.com/Taylor_Stag/status/1067199832408739847) from awhile back lol it just HAD to be written for baeksoo. i hope u enjoy :)

Kyungsoo shifts uncomfortably in his seat. He stretches his legs out in front of him, then quickly pulls them back as an older woman comes down the aisle, looking for a place to sit in the crowded departure gate. He sighs, glances over at the gate desk, hoping for another update on when his flight will be ready, but the attendants there are merely chatting with a young family with two small, crying children. Kyungsoo is so glad he didn’t forget his headphones at home.

He unlocks his phone, sighs again at the time. It’s been an hour since they announced the delay. Up to three hours they had said. Kyungsoo doesn’t even know what’s causing the delay. He’d zoned out the second he’d heard how long he was going to have to wait. It’s barely even ten in the morning. He wishes he could go home and curl back in bed and sleep.

Instead, he’s here. Surrounded by people, sitting in an uncomfortable chair with his carry-on between his legs. It’s too early to call Chanyeol just to have _someone_ to talk to, and he _could_ call his mom, but she will most likely ask him a hundred questions about the flower arrangements and table settings for his brother’s wedding as if it’s Kyungsoo who’s getting married instead. And in-between all of it, she’ll probably make subtle comments about Kyungsoo’s nonexistent love life.

He groans just thinking about it, staring down at his phone, scrolling through his texts, the Instagram account he made like a year ago and has barely updated since. Maybe it’s because his mom’s voice is in his head, questioning him about whether he’s met anyone recently, that Kyungsoo ends up on Tinder, which is only on his phone because Chanyeol had made his account for him when Kyungsoo had complained drunkenly one night about how it’s been too long since he last had sex.

Kyungsoo’s not particularly looking for sex right now, nor is he particularly interested in a relationship, but Tinder does give him something to _do_ while he’s sitting here, bored out of his mind.

“Nope,” he mutters under his breath, swiping left on a guy who looks about ten years older than his age suggests. “Nope again,” he says, passing by another guy whose bio is a quote from Fight Club.

“Eh, maybe,” he says, taking a few moments longer to assess the pretty blond who says she enjoys cooking, before caving and swiping right. He goes through the motions pretty mindlessly, approving a slightly older guy named Insung, who says he’s a film buff, and passing by a girl who’s holding a cat in her arms. He swipes left more than he swipes right. Chanyeol says Kyungsoo’s picky, but he’s just being honest. There’s no point in pretending on Tinder in his opinion.

He pauses on the profile of a guy named Baekhyun, who at first glance doesn’t raise any red flags. He’s 31 and lives within 10 miles of Kyungsoo. His occupation is listed as Public Affairs Consultant. He has a Tony Stark quote as his profile description which doesn’t tell Kyungsoo much of anything.

What does stand out is his photo. He’s attractive. Like, almost too attractive. The kind of good looking guy who is too good looking to even be real. Kyungsoo squints at his phone, wondering if the photos have some kind of filter on them or have been manipulated in some other way. The guy’s not even doing anything particularly special in his photo. It’s just a selfie, with a peace sign thrown up next to his cheek. He looks like one of the Korean idols that Junmyeon’s kids like.

Kyungsoo flips through Baekhyun’s photos. He only has three. The second one is another selfie, but he’s dressed more nicely in a crisp, white button-up and he’s definitely wearing makeup; his eyes are lined and there’s a smudge of silvery shimmer.

The last image is a candid shot that someone else must’ve taken because Baekhyun is laughing while holding onto an adorable corgi dog in his lap. His hair is pink. He’s really cute. Too cute.

Kyungsoo’s convinced this guy is using stolen photos or something. No one is _that_ good looking. He swipes through them again, scrolls back down his profile, considers checking out the linked Instagram, but then thinks, _Fuck it_ , and swipes left.

“Damn, are you sure it’s a no on that one?” says a voice from just behind Kyungsoo, filtering in through his headphones right during the quiet transition between songs.

Kyungsoo jerks around, tugging his headphones from his ears. Absolutely nothing could have prepared him to find the very man he’d been looking at on his phone seconds ago to be standing right in front of him now. There’s an amused curl to the man’s lips as he gazes down at Kyungsoo with deep, brown eyes.

“Fuck, I—” Kyungsoo cuts himself off because he’s not even sure what he _can_ say. He had been so wrong. Those photos on Tinder clearly weren’t stolen. Baekhyun is every bit as beautiful in real life as he’d been on that stupid app and the longer Baekhyun looks at him, the more mortified Kyungsoo becomes. “Fuck, I’m sorry, it’s not—It’s just—”

He stumbles over his words because he doesn’t know how to explain himself. Baekhyun’s amused smile turns into more of a smirk the longer Kyungsoo flounders, and he feels his face burning from the heat of his embarrassment.

Eventually he manages to say, “It’s nothing personal, okay? Just...uh, wasn’t interested, I guess.”

“That’s a shame,” Baekhyun says without missing a beat, “I would’ve swiped right for you.”

Kyungsoo wants to melt into the floor. Baekhyun is eyeing him with very clear interest, and maybe disappointment, and Kyungsoo has never been more embarrassed in his life. He doesn't know how to even respond to something like that and finds himself wishing he was anywhere but here. He’s on his feet before he realizes it, slinging his backpack over his shoulder, and mutters something about needing to go.

He doesn’t look back as he leaves the gate, but he’s pretty sure he can feel Baekhyun’s eyes on him the whole way.

In the safety of one of the bathrooms about three gates down, Kyungsoo scrolls through his contacts and calls Jongdae.

“Dude, do you know what _time_ it is?” comes Jongdae’s whining, sleepy voice once the line connects.

“It’s not _that_ early,” Kyungsoo hisses. “And that’s not the point. Listen.”

Kyungsoo tells Jongdae everything that just happened in a hushed voice, embarrassment still fresh in his body. Telling Jongdae doesn’t help him feel any better as he’d hoped, but Kyungsoo knows he would’ve been agonizing over his conversation with Baekhyun for hours if he didn’t tell _someone_ to share in his mortification.

Except Jongdae doesn’t seem to find anything about Kyungsoo’s situation mortifying at all. He says, “Wait, wait, the guy was right there? What’re you calling me for when you could spend the last of your delay time chatting him up?”

“That’s not—” Kyungsoo starts. “I don’t want to do that!”

“You don’t?” Jongdae says, like he doesn’t believe it. “Was he hot?”

Kyungsoo chokes. “What does that have to do with anything?” he demands and immediately grimaces when he realizes how loud he sounds, shrinking away from curious eyes of people walking in and out of the bathroom.

“Oh,” Jongdae says, and now he sounds rather gleeful, “he was _really_ hot.”

“I didn’t say that,” Kyungsoo hisses again.

“You didn’t have to,” Jongdae laughs. “I know you, Kyungsoo. You always try to deflect when you find someone hot. Send me his picture.”

“No, fuck you,” Kyungsoo says vehemently, which only makes Jongdae laugh even more. “Shut up,” he says, except it comes out more like a whine now and doesn’t particularly help his case. “If I wanted someone to laugh at me, I would’ve called Chanyeol.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I’m gonna call him after this and we’ll laugh about it together.”

“I’m hanging up now,” Kyungsoo mutters, defeated. “I’m gonna go drown myself in the sink.”

“I doubt that’s gonna work, but good luck,” says Jongdae rather cheerfully, then laughs at himself and adds, “Don’t be so dramatic. The guy was hot. He obviously was into you. Go back there and make friends. Or drag him into an empty bathroom stall for a quick fuck. Whatever works for you.”

“Goodbye, Jongdae,” Kyungsoo says flatly and hangs up before he has to hear Jongdae’s response. He tucks his phone into his pocket, removes his glasses from his face and hooks them into the collar of his shirt so he can scrub at his face with his hands.

He groans. Thinking about going back out there where Baekhyun might still be able to see him makes Kyungsoo want to shrivel up and die, so he takes his time washing his hands and his face with the coldest water from the sink, until the lingering embarrassment in his veins fades almost entirely away.

He slips his glasses back on, stares at himself in the mirror for a long moment, as if waiting for his reflection to tell him to stop being such a chicken, and then finally leaves.

He walks slowly back toward his gate. He stops by one of the small convenience stores along the way and picks up a bag of chips and some M&Ms, figuring he can distract himself from his joke of a life with food.

Of course by the time he returns to his gate, the seat he’d been using earlier has been taken up by an elderly man and there doesn’t seem to be any other open space available. That’s what he gets for running away like an idiot. He’s contemplating finding a place on the floor when he catches sight of Baekhyun, lounging in one of the seats two rows down because of course he’s still here, because of course he’s taking the same flight to D.C. that Kyungsoo is, of course, of course, of course.

“Hey,” Baekhyun says when he notices him, eyes bright and smile wide, like he’s excited to see Kyungsoo again. “Need a seat?”

“Uh—” Kyungsoo starts, not sure how to explain that he would rather go sit outside on the tarmac than next to Baekhyun right now, but then Baekhyun is dragging the backpack and garment bag off the seat beside him and offering it to Kyungsoo, so who is Kyungsoo really to say no? “Thanks,” he mumbles as he joins Baekhyun, shrugging his own backpack to the ground and sighing as he leans back in the chair.

“No problem,” Baekhyun says, still smiling. It’s a nice smile, Kyungsoo thinks faintly. Pretty, like the rest of him. He drags his eyes away quickly, reaches into his backpack for his water bottle just for something to do with his hands. “You’re headed to D.C. too, I take it?”

“Yeah,” Kyungsoo says, and when he figures that’s probably not a sufficient enough answer, he adds, “For my brother’s wedding.”

“I love weddings,” Baekhyun says excitedly, “is that what you were on Tinder for earlier? Looking for a last minute date?” His nice smile turns into an infuriating smirk. “I’d happily go with you.”

Kyungsoo stares at him, stunned. “Are you always like this?” he blurts out without thinking.

Baekhyun laughs. “What do you mean?” he asks in a very particular tone of voice that suggests he knows _exactly_ what Kyungsoo means.

“Nothing,” Kyungsoo quickly says, regaining his composure and looking pointedly away.

He finally twists open his water bottle and takes a long drink, then offers, “And no, I wasn’t looking for a date. My mom would kill me if I told her I was bringing someone three days before the wedding.” He twists the cap back on but continues holding onto the bottle as if it’ll lend him some strength and keep him grounded in this weird situation. “I was just bored,” he adds, “the delay is taking forever.”

“Well, at least now you have someone to talk to while you wait,” Baekhyun says.

Kyungsoo stares at him, once again surprised by Baekhyun’s blunt friendliness.

“Me,” Baekhyun says, when Kyungsoo doesn’t respond, taking his silence as confusion. “I’m talking about me.”

There’s a hint of a whine in his voice, like he’s somewhat petulant that Kyungsoo isn’t reacting to his flirtatious gestures in kind. It makes Kyungsoo laugh, shaking his head in amusement. There’s something about Baekhyun’s forwardness that he finds almost...flattering. He’s not used to this kind of brash approach, especially in a place like an _airport_ , but Baekhyun isn’t being particularly creepy about anything, so Kyungsoo is not as decidedly turned off as he might normally be. Or maybe he really is just bored and Baekhyun is a good way to occupy his time.

Either way, he finds himself entertained, chuckling softly as he glances up at Baekhyun and notices the way he’s staring back at Kyungsoo rather shocked, like he’s never seen someone laughing before. But his expression smooths out moments later, a warm smile stretching across his lips. He looks at Kyungsoo with intrigue and Kyungsoo coughs, glancing away again and searching for something to say.

“You’re not traveling with anyone?” he finally says and Baekhyun shakes his head.

“Nope,” he says, lips popping on the sound. “I’m heading to D.C. for a business thing. It’s gonna be a lot of fancy luncheons, dinners, and networking.”

Kyungsoo drags his eyes down Baekhyun’s body, taking in his ripped jeans and chunky, worn-out sneakers. He looks more like a college kid than someone who should be attending business dinners in another state. He lifts his brow curiously as he meets Baekhyun’s eyes.

“Yeah, yeah, I know I don’t look the part,” Baekhyun laughs, “but that is why I’m lugging this around.” He pats the garment bag he carefully laid out atop his backpack. “I’ll have you know I’m very important.”

“Sure, you are,” Kyungsoo snorts, even though he is somewhat intrigued. He puts his water bottle back in his bag and pulls out one of the bags of chips he bought earlier. As he settles back into his seat and rips open the bag, he notices Baekhyun’s still watching him and is suddenly very conscious of how much noise the bag is making.

Before he can apologize, or even offer some of the food as compensation, Baekhyun suddenly says, “So, since you already saw my name on the app and everything, do you mind telling me yours? I can’t keep referring to you as the _airport hottie_ in my head.”

Kyungsoo splutters, embarrassment creeping up his neck again. Baekhyun is definitely too good at this casual flirting thing. “Please never say _airport hottie_ again,” Kyungsoo says with a slight groan that makes Baekhyun laugh again. He enjoys the way Baekhyun’s whole face lights up every time he laughs. He’s already growing used to how nice it sounds. He smiles and adds, “And my name’s Kyungsoo. I guess it’s nice to meet you.”

“Oh, believe me,” Baekhyun says with another one of those infuriating smirks that Kyungsoo’s starting to find rather attractive, “the pleasure is all mine.”

❖

“ _Logically_ , there is no way vampires can get erections,” Kyungsoo hisses. “They’re _dead_ , they shouldn’t have control over their organs _nor_ should they have bodily fluids!”

Baekhyun laughs loudly and Kyungsoo is vaguely aware that this is definitely not the kind of conversation they should be having in public with children around. People are giving them _looks_. He also finds he doesn’t really care, not when Baekhyun’s laughing like this, lightly smacking Kyungsoo’s thigh in his mirth.

“But then how the fuck did Bella get pregnant in Twilight?” Baekhyun demands.

“The vampires in that series _sparkled_ under the sun,” Kyungsoo deadpans, eliciting even more giggling from Baekhyun, “do you really expect any of the typical rules to apply?”

“I suppose not,” Baekhyun snickers. “Man, it must suck to be a vampire then. Eternal life without being able to jerk off? No, thanks.”

Kyungsoo shakes his head, an incredulous laugh spilling from his lips. “How did we even end up on this topic?”

“Magic?” Baekhyun offers as he pops a chocolate-covered pretzel into his mouth and flashes Kyungsoo a grin. “It beats talking about politics or the weather or how long we’ve been sitting here.”

Kyungsoo groans at the reminder, unlocking his phone to check the time. He’s rather shocked that over an hour has passed; he didn’t think he’d been sitting here talking with Baekhyun for that long. It definitely hasn’t felt that long. “We’ve got to be boarding soon, right?” he says, running a hand through his hair.

“Are you trying to get rid of me, Kyungsoo?” Baekhyun teases. “Even after we’ve bonded over vampire dicks?”

He says it so casually, so shamelessly, like most things Baekhyun seems to say, that it startles a laugh out of Kyungsoo. He swats Baekhyun’s chest with the back of his hand and is surprised at his own reaction; Kyungsoo’s not usually so familiar with someone he’s just met. Something about Baekhyun is strangely comforting, easy. He’s not sure what to make of it yet.

“Honestly, I just want a nap,” Kyungsoo answers after a moment. “I had to get up early for this flight, only for it to be delayed, and sleeping in an airport when you’re on your own is just not smart.”

“You can sleep now if you want,” Baekhyun offers. “I’ll watch over your stuff.”

Kyungsoo quickly shakes his head. “No, no, that’s fine,” he says, even though the idea _is_ somewhat appealing. He’s exhausted but he also...he also just wants to talk with Baekhyun more.

“Are you sure?” Baekhyun asks, and Kyungsoo just knows he’s going to say something ridiculous when his mouth twists into a sly smile. “You can even rest your head in my lap if you want. I've heard it’s quite comfy.”

“You are unbelievable,” Kyungsoo says, incredulous and yet also impressed. Every time he thinks he’s grown accustomed to Baekhyun’s easy-going flirting, Baekhyun proves him wrong. He feels his ears burn under Baekhyun’s almost hopeful gaze and lightly kicks his ankle with his foot. “Knock it off.”

Immediately, Baekhyun says, “Sorry, sorry. Is it really bothering you? My friends tell me I’m too flirty for my own good.”

“It’s not—” Kyungsoo starts, but stops. It’s not _bothering_ him, per se. There is something rather nice about Baekhyun’s attention and the fact he clearly finds Kyungsoo attractive. It’s been awhile since Kyungsoo’s experienced anything like this. He doesn’t mind it, not really. It’s how Baekhyun seems to be, and Kyungsoo’s starting to realize he kind of likes that, too. “I’m just not used to it, I guess,” he says finally, scratching a finger down the side of his neck behind his ear.

“I’ll try to tone it down for you,” Baekhyun says with a laugh.

“I appreciate it,” Kyungsoo says as dryly as he can, hopeful that Baekhyun understands that he doesn’t really mind.

They’re both startled then by the crackling sound of the overhead speakers and the woman at their gate desk announcing that their flight will be ready to board within the next fifteen minutes.

“Fuck, finally,” Kyungsoo says with a relieved sigh. He stretches his arms over his head and doesn’t miss the way Baekhyun eyes him appreciatively all the while. His ears burn again as he lowers his arms, tugs his shirt down at the hem. “I’ve already gotten ten texts from my mom disappointed about me being late as if _I’m_ the one who made the plane delay.”

Baekhyun grins at that and says, “Your mom would get along with mine.” He leans back in his seat and brushes a few strands of his soft, black hair out of his face. “She’s always on my case about something. Lately it’s been that I can’t cook well enough for myself and she’s worried I’m gonna get scurvy.”

It’s so unexpected and Baekhyun says it so casually that Kyungsoo bursts out with an amused laugh. “ _Are_ you gonna get scurvy?” he asks between his breathless chuckles.

“I’m not _that_ bad,” Baekhyun says and he pouts, actually pouts, lower lip jutting out, and whine in his voice. It’s absolutely childish and yet so stupidly adorable and Kyungsoo wonders, for the briefest of seconds, if Baekhyun’s lips feel as soft as they look—

“Let me guess, you make perfectly delicious cup ramen?” Kyungsoo teases, pushing his glasses up his nose with a knuckle and pushing all other thoughts about Baekhyun’s mouth to the back of his mind. “You add an egg in and everything.”

“How did you know!” Baekhyun exclaims, pressing a hand to his chest as if he’s truly shocked. They both laugh together then, and Kyungsoo has to glance away when the deep, warm brown of Baekhyun’s gaze becomes too much. “I bet you’re just as bad as me,” Baekhyun says after a moment. “You probably make a mean toast.”

“Well, actually—” Kyungsoo starts, but is cut off by the familiar static noise of the speakers once again. The gate attendant announces that they’ll start with boarding for anyone in wheelchairs or with young children. The area around them grows progressively louder as multiple people stand and shuffle about, gathering up their belongings, getting ready to board.

“Guess it’s almost time to part ways, huh?” Baekhyun says with a small smile and Kyungsoo looks at him, wants to say something nice, something...flirty, even, something that will leave Baekhyun thinking about him for the five-hour flight to D.C.

Instead all he manages is a simple, “Guess so,” and almost immediately wants to go bang his head on the nearest wall.

He’s surprised when Baekhyun stands, lugs his backpack over his shoulder. “I’m gonna run to the bathroom before boarding ends,” he says. “It was nice talking to you, Kyungsoo. Maybe I’ll see you up there.” He grins widely. “Maybe we’ll be seatmates.”

“The universe wouldn’t be so cruel,” Kyungsoo returns easily and can’t help but grin when Baekhyun fakes being stabbed in the chest, stumbling backwards in mock pain.

“Ouch,” he says. “This wasn’t all that bad, was it?”

“No,” Kyungsoo says, perhaps a little too quickly because Baekhyun’s eyes widen like he’d expected Kyungsoo to think about it, to tease him yet again, “it wasn’t bad at all.”

Baekhyun opens his mouth, then closes it. There’s a sudden, rosy color to his cheeks, and it takes Kyungsoo a moment to realize Baekhyun is _flustered_. A little coil of pleasure curls in Kyungsoo’s gut, strangely enjoying being able to make Baekhyun react like this after spending over an hour of constantly being embarrassed by Baekhyun’s flirting.

“Well,” Baekhyun says after a moment, “good.” He grips the strap of his backpack tight with his pretty, long fingers. “Okay, I’m gonna...go. See you later, Kyungsoo.”

“Bye,” Kyungsoo says and watches as Baekhyun turns on his heel and walks off. It’s not until Baekhyun is completely out of sight that Kyungsoo realizes he might not actually see Baekhyun later at all. That this might’ve been their last time interacting with each other, that he’s actually disappointed about the prospect.

“Stupid,” he mutters to himself, sinking into his seat and wondering why he didn’t ask for Baekhyun’s number, wondering why Baekhyun didn’t bother asking for his.

There’s nothing he can really do about it now, unfortunately. He focuses on making sure all his things are packed away in his bag, then pulls up his ticket on his phone to have it ready. He stands, shrugging his bag over his shoulders, and heads over to join the growing crowd of passengers waiting to board.

Zones are called out one by one but Baekhyun doesn’t return before Kyungsoo’s section is called. He hesitates on waiting for him, but wonders if it would be weird. It’s not like they’re actually traveling together. They already said their goodbyes. He really just wants to get on the plane and take that nap he’s been wanting for awhile.

He sighs and gets in line, scans his ticket, and heads down the walkway. His seat is midway down the plane, next to the window, and he easily settles into the empty row, wondering suddenly if Baekhyun really will be his seatmate. What a coincidence that would be. He’s almost hoping it’ll come true.

But as more and more passengers file through the plane, the two seats beside Kyungsoo are filled up and Kyungsoo sighs with disappointment. A few minutes later, he catches Baekhyun walking down the aisle and stopping a couple of rows in front of him. Baekhyun’s face brightens when he sees him and he gives Kyungsoo a small wave and one of those pretty smiles that has Kyungsoo’s stomach swooping. He really is handsome, Kyungsoo thinks as he grins and waves back, laughing when Baekhyun mimes sleeping, pillowing his hands together against the side of his face.

“Have a good nap,” he calls out and then _winks_. “Dream of me!”

Kyungsoo feels himself blush, wishes he could yell out, _fuck you_ , because he’s sure it would make Baekhyun laugh. Instead, he surreptitiously gives Baekhyun the finger and hopes that conveys his feelings. As expected, Baekhyun laughs, head tilted back and shoulders shaking in his mirth, and then he’s sinking down into this seat with a final wave and Kyungsoo settles back into his own, ignoring the looks he’s getting from the couple next to him.

He rests his head against the side of the plane, closes his eyes, and smiles.

❖

Kyungsoo sleeps for the majority of the flight. He wakes with about an hour left, feeling slightly groggy but mostly well-rested. He spends the rest of the trip reading a book he’d brought with him and eating through his bag of M&Ms.

When the plane lands, he texts his mom and Chanyeol that he’s finally made it safely, then stretches his arms over his head with a heavy sigh. He runs his hands through his hair, pulls his glasses off to rub at his eyes. He’s glad he’s managed to fit everything he needed in his backpack and that his suit for the wedding is waiting for him at home so he doesn’t have to worry about additional luggage. By the time he’s out in the aisle, he realizes he missed Baekhyun leaving.

He sighs again. He needs to get a grip. He only spent an hour or so with Baekhyun, it shouldn’t be enough to be this...charmed already. Just the thought makes his face burn. Sure, Baekhyun is attractive and he’s funny and he was clearly into Kyungsoo, which was flattering, but it’s not like they’ve suddenly become friends and it’s probably not like Kyungsoo’s ever going to see him again. He doesn’t have his number. He doesn’t even know his last name.

He’s lowkey wallowing in his own stupidity the whole way off the plane that he almost misses Baekhyun waiting on the walkway, standing against the wall out of the main path. For a moment, Kyungsoo just wonders if maybe he left something on the plane he’s waiting to go back for, but then his eyes light up when he sees Kyungsoo, and Kyungsoo realizes Baekhyun’s been waiting for _him_.

“Hey,” Baekhyun says, falling into step beside Kyungsoo, chuckling when Kyungsoo continues staring at him in surprise. “You didn’t think I was really gonna leave without saying a proper goodbye at least?”

“I, well, I mean, technically we said our goodbyes back in L.A.,” Kyungsoo points out, but when Baekhyun pouts, he adds, “I’m glad though. That you waited.”

The pout is immediately replaced by a grin. “I hoped you would be,” he says. “How was your flight?”

They chat about the flight all the way through the airport and into the baggage claim area. Neither of them have any actual baggage to claim, so they wait by the doors and Kyungsoo wonders if he’s the only one who feels reluctant about parting.

When he gets a text from his dad that he’s about five minutes away, he sighs, running a hand through his hair and plucking up the courage to ask Baekhyun for his number—anything.

Except he doesn’t have to, because the second he looks back up, Baekhyun suddenly blurts out, “Hey, look, I know you said earlier that you weren’t interested in me and that’s fine! I’m not trying to pressure you or anything! But I think you’re cool and, well, really hot—” Baekhyun laughs here, almost embarrassed, but then plows right on, “and I had a great time talking with you so, maybe—Maybe we could be friends? If you want to give me your number we could, I don’t know, get drinks sometime or go out for lunch or whatever you want. No strings, no expectations. I mean, unless you change your mind and you start falling for me—oh my god.”

Baekhyun cuts himself off abruptly, a pink blush spreading across his cheeks. He’s not quite looking at Kyungsoo anymore. “I’m gonna shut up now,” he mumbles before adding softly, hopefully, “But...yeah...What do you say?”

Kyungsoo stares at him, stunned. His brain is struggling to process all the words Baekhyun’s just said and it takes him so long that he starts to see Baekhyun curling in on himself.

“Oh,” Baekhyun says eventually, in a quiet voice. “Okay.” He licks his lips, grips the strap of his backpack with his fingers. “Well, then, goodbye, Kyungsoo.”

Baekhyun’s barely taken two steps away before Kyungsoo regains function of his brain and his body and jerks into action, realizing Baekhyun’s taken his silence as rejection. “Shit, Baekhyun, wait—” he exclaims. “I lied.”

Baekhyun turns back, staring at Kyungsoo with confusion etched in his eyes. “What?”

“Before—back at the airport—I lied. When you asked why I swiped left on you. It’s not that I wasn’t interested, it’s that I found you too intimidating? I don’t know,” Kyungsoo says, rubbing at the back of his neck and staring down at the dirty concrete beneath his feet as if that will help him through this conversation.

When he looks back up, Baekhyun is staring at him like he’s grown another head and Christmas has come early all at once. Kyungsoo kind of wishes he could stop talking, but the words continue to fall from his lips. “Your photos didn’t seem real, _you_ didn’t seem real, like you were too attractive to even be on that stupid app in the first place and _fuck_ , this is so embarrassing, I shouldn’t even be telling you this.” He groans, runs a hand through his hair, and wonders just how childish it would be to go hide behind one of the tall columns along the sidewalk.

But Baekhyun now looks positively delighted by Kyungsoo’s words. “I’m really glad you did tell me,” he says, practically beaming, and somehow that makes it easier for Kyungsoo to deal with his embarrassment.

He huffs out a laugh, rolls his eyes. “Of course you are.”

“So, if you thought I was hot then—”

“Give me your goddamn phone,” Kyungsoo interrupts him, because _of course_ that’s the part Baekhyun wants to discuss. He holds his hand out and Baekhyun scrambles to oblige. Kyungsoo smiles softly at the photo of Baekhyun’s dog that’s set as his wallpaper, then adds his number into his contacts, calls himself through Baekhyun’s phone so he’ll have Baekhyun’s number waiting for him, too.

“We can meet up sometime when we’re both back in L.A.,” he says, handing Baekhyun’s phone back and ignoring the little shiver that dances up his spine when their fingers touch.

Baekhyun grins down at his phone, then up at Kyungsoo. “It’s a date,” he says, confidently.

Kyungsoo can’t help but laugh. “We’ll see,” he says, but he’s already looking forward to it.

❖

Kyungsoo’s brother’s wedding is on Saturday. Kyungsoo spends all of Thursday and Friday assisting his parents with last-minute details and mostly trying to keep his mother from frantically ripping all her hair out in stress. He cleans out the guest bedroom in the house and picks up his grandparents from the airport on Thursday night, easily dodges his grandma’s questions about his love life by asking if she’ll taste-test a dish he’s been working on when they get home.

It’s been awhile since Kyungsoo has been home, so despite how tired he is and how little he’s actually a fan of weddings, he’s happy to spend time with his parents, his brother, and his grandparents. His old room has been transformed into a sewing space for his mom, but his bed is still the same, and his Prince of Tennis poster from high school is still pinned up next to it.

In between all the comfort of being at home and the chaos of the upcoming wedding, there is Baekhyun, sending Kyungsoo texts practically every hour of the day. Kyungsoo’s never been the kind of person to carry his phone around with him everywhere, leaving it in his room or forgetting it on the kitchen counter. He’ll pick it up halfway through the day to find Baekhyun’s messaged him a dozen times, asking everything from _did u sleep well?_ to _i saw a puppy on the street today it was so cute :(_ to _do u ever check ur phone???_ and then about five messages whining for Kyungsoo to answer him.

Kyungsoo starts to keep his phone on him a little more after that.

It’s nice, though, Baekhyun’s texts. He’d worried that maybe Baekhyun wouldn’t message him at all or that he would have to find the courage to message him first. Instead he learns that Baekhyun is just as funny and just as ridiculous through text as he is in person and that it’s almost easier to talk to him like this, when Kyungsoo can ignore Baekhyun’s flirty comments for hours until he’s figured out a good way to reply and even take the time to formulate his own.

He’s on his phone so much that his brother comments on it Friday afternoon, when they’re running out to pick up their suits and a late lunch for everyone back home.

“Do you have a boyfriend or something?” Seungsoo asks as Kyungsoo’s in the middle of responding to one of Baekhyun’s messages. “I’ve never seen you text so much.”

Kyungsoo drops his phone to the floor of the car in surprise, then embarrassedly picks it up and yelps when his brother tries to snatch it from him. Thankfully they’re at a red light, so their little scuffle doesn’t cause an accident. Seungsoo gives up after a couple of moments, laughing, and Kyungsoo tucks his phone into his pocket. “No, I don’t,” he says, and he knows Seungsoo doesn’t believe him. “I’m serious.”

“If you’re texting someone that much, maybe you should be dating,” Seungsoo says simply as the light turns green and he heads down the road.

“Don’t start,” Kyungsoo grumbles. “I’m already hearing too much about this now that you’re getting married.”

That makes his brother cackle. “It’s never gonna end until you’re married too, little bro.”

“Just kill me now,” says Kyungsoo.

“At least wait until after tomorrow, okay?” Seungsoo offers, patting Kyungsoo on the shoulder. “You’ve got Best Man duties to fulfill.”

Kyungsoo groans at that, mostly for effect, but smiles when Seungsoo grins at him. His brother’s been really lowkey about the wedding and about what he’s wanted Kyungsoo to do as Best Man. It helps that Kyungsoo lives across the country and isn’t exactly the Best Man-bachelor party-throwing kind of guy anyway, so he delegated that job to one of Seungsoo’s old college buddies who’s a groomsman. Kyungsoo hadn’t been able to attend, but he’s honestly thankful for it, and Seungsoo never made a big deal about it either.

Tomorrow he’ll have to be on his best behavior, ensure all the groomsmen are appropriately dressed and sober, and give a speech during the reception, but all of that is much more in Kyungsoo’s wheelhouse of capabilities so he’s not too worried. He’s had a speech written for a few weeks and he’ll practice tonight before bed.

Even though Kyungsoo’s been counting down the hours, Saturday morning comes sooner than expected. He wakes to his mother pounding on the door and then his dad poking his head in to say it’s okay to sleep an hour more. Kyungsoo’s mostly awake though, so he rolls around in his bed and checks the emails and messages on his phone.

He finds a few emails from Junmyeon, the hotel manager for the restaurant where Kyungsoo works, giving Kyungsoo an update about how things have gone the past couple of days. As a chef, Kyungsoo doesn’t take many extended days off, but he knows the place is in good hands under Junmyeon’s watchful eye and the care of the other executive chef. He answers texts from Chanyeol and is slightly disappointed when he doesn’t find anything from Baekhyun waiting for him.

It’s still early though, so that might be why. Kyungsoo takes the plunge and types up, _It’s too early for life but at least it’s finally D-Day._ He sends it before he can think twice, then tosses his phone aside and buries his face in his pillow. Maybe he can half-sleep for another couple of minutes.

When he wakes next, it’s nearly a whole hour later. He rubs at his face and sighs, grateful for the extra sleep. He can hear his parents talking down the hall as he feels around for his phone in the sheets to check the time. It’s just after nine, he notices, but his attention is quickly distracted by the text notification from Baekhyun.

 _not a morning person, i take it?_ , Baekhyun says, _poor baby :(_

Before Kyungsoo can wonder if Baekhyun is being condescending, he scrolls further down and reads, _see if u had invited me, i could’ve woken u up with kisses ;)_

“Fucking,” Kyungsoo mutters, astounded. It’s too early to be this flustered. It’s too early for such blatant flirting. It’s too early for Kyungsoo to be thinking about Baekhyun’s pretty, pink lips, which is now unfortunately all he _is_ thinking about. “Fucking—fuck—”

He types out a frustrated response, something about how he’s not awake enough for this, and then drags himself out of bed to finally get ready for the day. He definitely does _not_ jerk off in the shower thinking about Baekhyun’s mouth and what else his pretty lips can do aside from kissing.

It’s a busy day. Kyungsoo easily loses track of time in between making breakfast for his grandparents and picking his aunt and uncle up from the airport an hour later. The ceremony isn’t for hours but it feels like the minutes pass by much more quickly than usual, leaving him already exhausted before they even make it to the venue. His mom is downright panicking, running around the house making sure everyone has everything, that Kyungsoo doesn’t forget to pick up the flowers from the shop on the way, that Seungsoo has the rings, and she’s driving everyone so crazy that Kyungsoo eventually drags her to the kitchen and makes her tea.

She sniffles quietly, holding the cup delicately in her hands, and smiles at him when he teases her that it’s too early to start crying.

“I’m glad you’re here,” she says, patting his cheek.

“Where else would I be?” he laughs. “I’ve got to be here to humiliate hyung during the reception with my speech.”

“I heard that!” Seungsoo yells from down the hall, and Kyungsoo grins when it makes their mom dissolve into laughter.

Things get a bit easier after that. They pack up the cars and drive to the venue, a really beautiful chapel with lots of gardens and scenery to take outdoor photos. Seungsoo’s fiance and her parents are already there when they pull up, and there’s a round of excited hugs all around. Kyungsoo’s met Sooyoung a couple of times in the past five years and she greets him as warmly as usual, thanks him for being there.

She disappears into the designated bridal room to get ready soon after, followed by her mother, her sisters, and one of her bridesmaids who’s already arrived. Kyungsoo drags Seungsoo to the room set up for the groom and groomsmen, and Seungsoo practically collapses into an armchair with a deep sigh the second they’re inside.

“Kyungsoo,” he says seriously. “If you ever want to get married, just elope.”

Kyungsoo snorts and throws a small couch pillow at him that Seungsoo easily dodges with a laugh. Kyungsoo sinks down into the couch to enjoy a short moment of peace as well, since none of his brother’s groomsmen have arrived yet, and pulls his phone from his pocket to check his messages for the first time since that morning.

He has a text from Chanyeol that wishes him well on the speech and not to throw up while giving it, to which Kyungsoo sends back a short _fuck you_. There’s a message from Jongdae, but it’s the one from Baekhyun that grabs his attention, and he pulls it up to find a few laughing emojis to Kyungsoo’s last response, then a message that tells him the day will go by faster than Kyungsoo thinks.

Beneath that, sent barely 30 minutes ago, is a photo. Baekhyun’s standing in front of a full-length mirror wearing a very well-fitted navy suit with a white shirt and a light blue tie. He’s holding the tie with the fingers of his free hand, like he was in the middle of adjusting it, and he has a fancy watch adorning his wrist. His hair is coiffed off his forehead and he’s got one of those infuriating smirks on his face, like he knows just how good he looks.

And fuck does he look good. He looks ridiculously good. Kyungsoo probably spends way too long staring at the photo that he almost misses the message sent underneath.

_do u believe that i’m very important now?  
tell me how good i look 8)_

Kyungsoo groans, slumping back against the couch and staring up at the ceiling like it will help him through this difficult time. Why does Baekhyun have to be so hot and so flirtatious? Why did Kyungsoo have to go and actually talk to him and get to know him and _like_ him? Why did he even open Tinder that day at the airport anyway?

“Are you okay?” Seungsoo asks from where he’s also scrolling through his phone.

“No,” Kyungsoo moans.

“Okay,” says Seungsoo, and doesn’t press anymore.

Kyungsoo would laugh at his brother’s disinterest but instead he holds his phone back up to his face and looks at Baekhyun’s photo, his messages, and contemplates on what to say.

Eventually he settles on snark, because it’s his default in situations like these. _You look fine I guess. And besides, anyone can play dress up, that doesn’t mean they pull it off_.

 _asshole_ , texts Baekhyun barely a minute later, _i look amazing! i’ve already had five different people try to flirt with me during this luncheon. jealous?_

 _Of what? Having to hobnob with people at a fancy lunch? Not at all_ , Kyungsoo sends back, smiling a little as he types and awaits Baekhyun’s reply.

It comes quickly once again, leaving him to wonder just how attentive he’s really being at this supposed fancy lunch.

_ha ha like u won’t have to hobnob with people at your fancy wedding. how’s that going btw_

Kyungsoo sighs, glancing around the room. Seungsoo is still on his phone, probably texting with his fiance as she gets ready, and he can hear his parents talking down the hall, the familiar sound of a car pulling up outside. Probably more bridesmaids, or one of Seungsoo’s groomsmen, hopefully.

 _It’s going fine_ , he replies. _We’ll be getting ready soon. Might disappear_

 _i’ll miss u :( :( :(_ Baekhyun says and it shouldn’t make Kyungsoo feel all fluttery but it does. He squirms around on the couch, resisting the urge to just flop over and groan again.

 _send me a photo of u all dressed up_ , Baekhyun texts again before Kyungsoo can respond.

He bites his lip thoughtfully, scrolling back up to the photo Baekhyun sent earlier, and then back down. He’ll probably be dragged around to take tons of photos today, so there won’t be a shortage of pictures he can send Baekhyun later, but still he finds himself unable to resist teasing.

 _No_ , he replies with a laugh and then drops his phone onto the couch in favor of standing up and stretching.

He’ll check Baekhyun’s reply later. Right now it’s time to get ready for his brother’s wedding.

❖

For all the time it takes everyone to dress presentably for the ceremony, it’s over in a flash. Sooyoung looked absolutely beautiful walking down the aisle and Kyungsoo hopes someone got a good photo of the hilariously stunned expression on Seungsoo’s face when he first saw her. Kyungsoo’s mother cried during their vows and Seungsoo almost dropped the ring before he slipped it onto Sooyoung’s finger, and when the officiant declared them husband and wife, it was Sooyoung who dragged Seungsoo into a kiss.

They head to a nearby hotel for the reception afterward. The banquet room that they’d booked has been transformed beautifully into an elegant reception space, with white table covers, bright flower centerpieces, and fairy lights dangling along the walls and the length of the head table for the bride and groom.

It is a really nice evening. As much as Kyungsoo isn’t a fan of weddings, he has to admit this one is pretty great. The music is good, the food even better, and he’s glad to see his brother so happy. Halfway through the evening, he finally gets a chance to check his phone.

He laughs at the nearly screen-length text of crying emoji Baekhyun sent back in response to Kyungsoo’s denial of a photo and sends back a shrugging emoji in reply.

There’s another message from Chanyeol, too, wishing him good luck on his speech. He’d almost forgotten about it, honestly, in the face of everything else that’s been going on, and he sends back a quick _thank you_ before he pulls up the speech he’d written out in an email to review it once more.

When Kyungsoo finally goes up to speak, holding the mic in one hand, and his phone in the other just in case he needs the reference, he gazes around the room and takes a deep breath. His eyes land on his brother and Seungsoo holds two fingers up to his eyes and then points them around at Kyungsoo in an _I’m watching you_ motion, a silent warning.

Kyungsoo laughs and shakes the last of his nerves away.

“Good evening everyone,” he says with a small smile. “I know my brother is worried about me telling you all an embarrassing story about him.” Seungsoo pretends to look affronted, shaking his head when Sooyoung laughs at him, and Kyungsoo smiles wider before he continues. “I want to tell him not to be, but that’d be a lie, since I don’t have one embarrassing story.” He pauses for effect. “I have three.”

The entire room laughs and Kyungsoo settles, eases into the rest of his speech.

It’s a success. He doesn’t trip over his words or forget anything he wanted to say and he gets a lot of applause at the end that only embarrasses him. He hands the mic back to the DJ and shuffles back to his seat, thanking the couple of people who congratulate him along the way, and when he catches his brother and sister-in-law’s eyes, they’re both beaming at him.

“Thank you,” Seungsoo mouths, and Kyungsoo nods. They’ll have more time to talk later and he’s sure Seungsoo might pummel him a little as a show of gratitude.

The rest of the wedding goes off without a hitch. The other speeches are just as fun and lighthearted and emotional and, despite the open bar, no one gets horribly plastered. Seungsoo and Sooyoung have a beautiful first dance together before the DJ shakes everything up with a remix of Old Town Road that sends half the crowd out onto the floor and leaves Kyungsoo laughing from his seat.

He’s joined soon after by Jongin, an old family friend who used to live next door when they were kids. “I haven’t seen you in so long, hyung,” Jongin says, giving Kyungsoo a warm hug. “How’ve you been?”

“Not too bad,” Kyungsoo says with a smile. “You’ve gotten so much taller than I remember.”

“Everyone keeps saying that,” Jongin laughs and settles down in the empty chair next to Kyungsoo. They talk about how he’s been doing, living in Paris after joining a ballet company there. He’s still adorable and Kyungsoo’s happy to chat with someone around his own age instead of all the aunts and uncles that keep trying to ask about when Kyungsoo will get married, too.

Every once in a while he remembers to check his phone to reply to one of Baekhyun’s texts, and is eventually dragged out to dance by Sooyoung who insists she won’t have anyone left out. Jongin follows along, laughing at Kyungsoo’s terrible dancing skills, taking photos on his phone, and charming a few of Sooyoung’s bridesmaids with his sweet moves.

The fun only pauses long enough for the bride and groom to cut the cake and Kyungsoo is pleased he’d had the forethought to film the moment on his phone because Sooyoung smashes a piece of cake into Seungsoo’s mouth with her fingers, laughing loudly as he splutters in shock.

When he tries to retaliate, she’s quickly rescued by her bridesmaids and Kyungsoo’s dad steps in to stop Seungsoo from attempting to start a whole food fight. One of the hotel staff comes by with a towel for Seungsoo and when he’s clean enough, he waves Sooyoung back over and kisses her on the forehead, wrapping an arm around her and squeezing gently.

It makes Kyungsoo smile. The way they look at each other is so full of love. He’s really happy for them. He tucks his phone into his pocket and surveys the rest of the hall, finds his mother sitting at a table nearby and heads over to join her. She beams when she sees him approaching, pulls up a chair beside her for him to sit and immediately holds onto his hands, patting the back with her fingers.

“Everything went well, didn’t it?” Kyungsoo says softly, watching as Seungsoo pulls Sooyoung back to dance. “It really was a beautiful wedding, mom.”

She sighs as if in relief and smiles up at him. “Thank you, sweetheart,” she says, patting his hand again. “I’m glad you’re here.”

Kyungsoo looks around the room once again. He thinks about how he had a good time tonight. He thinks about how he had to wait three extra hours at the airport just to get here in the first place. He thinks about how that slight inconvenience had led him to meet Baekhyun, and then quickly pushes that thought away. His gaze lands back on Seungsoo and Sooyoung, and he smiles, watching the way Sooyoung clearly has to lead as they dance.

It’s his brother’s wedding. Where else would he be?

He wraps an arm around his mother’s shoulders, gives her a little squeeze. “I’m glad I’m here, too,” he says and pulls her up to join the rest of the wedding party on the dance floor.

❖

_call me when u get home_ is the message Kyungsoo finds on his phone at the end of the night. The couple of guests staying overnight have migrated to their hotel rooms, while the rest have said their goodbyes and headed home. Kyungsoo can’t imagine why Baekhyun wants to talk to him but he slips his phone into his pocket and helps take down the decorations around the venue that they’re planning to keep.

His brother and Sooyoung look rather exhausted when Kyungsoo finally bids his goodbyes; they’re staying at the hotel overnight but will be stopping by the house in the morning for breakfast. Kyungsoo’s mother had insisted they come before they head off on their fancy honeymoon in the Maldives and had even invited Sooyoung’s family as well.

“Thanks for everything, little bro,” Seungsoo says, giving Kyungsoo a gruff hug, and Kyungsoo retaliates by poking Seungsoo in the armpit where he’s ticklish.

“You’re not much bigger than me,” he says and laughs when Seungsoo flips him off. He gives Sooyoung a hug too, tells her she looked beautiful, and then helps his grandparents into his dad’s car before getting into his own. In the silence of his car, he takes a deep, heavy breath and slumps back against the seat. His car smells like flowers, since they’d packed up all the decorations into the backseat. He pulls his phone from his pocket and looks at Baekhyun’s text again.

 _Okay_ , he types back. _Be there in 20 minutes_.

“God,” Baekhyun says the instant the line connects when Kyungsoo calls him from the comfort of his room, “I’ve been thinking all day about how much I want to hear your voice.”

It’s practically midnight and Kyungsoo is far too tired to say anything besides a rather emphatic, “ _Jesus_ , Baekhyun.”

Baekhyun cackles into his ear. He sounds incredibly chipper for this time of night. “Sorry,” he says, not sounding sorry at all. “Too much?”

“I was thinking the whole drive home why you wanted to call when we’ve been texting all day,” Kyungsoo says, flopping back into his bed, still in his suit. He runs a hand through his hair and grimaces at the leftover residue of hair gel that clings to his hand. He wipes his palm onto his sheets and says, “I wasn’t expecting that.”

“Well, it’s true,” Baekhyun sniffs. “Texting you made me want to talk to you even more. Like this.” He pauses for a moment, like he’s considering his words, maybe wondering if they toe the line between honesty and flirty. Eventually, he says, “It’s nice hearing your voice.”

If Kyungsoo wasn’t so exhausted, he thinks he would be more flustered. As it is, he just finds himself grinning up at the ceiling as he replies, “Yeah, you too.”

“Tell me about the wedding,” Baekhyun says and Kyungsoo does. It’s easy to talk to Baekhyun, easy to laugh and joke and share stories about their days. And even when Kyungsoo feels ten seconds away from falling asleep, he holds on, enjoying the sound of Baekhyun’s voice in his ear, soothing and calming after such a hectic fourteen hours.

“Hey, you never sent me a photo of you by the way,” Baekhyun says after they’ve been talking for what feels like hours. Kyungsoo’s managed to remove his suit jacket and unbuttoned his shirt, but hasn’t been able to set his phone down long enough to undress properly. Hasn’t wanted to set his phone down at all, actually. He stretches out on his bed, slightly uncomfortable in his dress pants, and laughs at the petulant tone of Baekhyun’s voice.

“Fine,” Kyungsoo says, indulgently. “Let me find one for you.”

He scrolls through his photo gallery. Kyungsoo doesn’t really take many photos of himself, so the majority of the pictures from the wedding are of his family. He does find the selfie that he’d taken together with Jongin earlier and figures that’s probably good enough.

“Who’s that?” Baekhyun asks curiously, mere seconds after the photo has been sent over. “I thought you didn’t have a date.”

“I didn’t,” Kyungsoo laughs. “That’s Jongin, an old friend. He helped me not die of boredom.”

“I thought my texts were doing that,” Baekhyun says, a hint of a whine in his voice. “Is he why you never responded to my texts on time?” He huffs, and Kyungsoo has a weird swooping realization that Baekhyun sounds kind of jealous. “I guess he is kinda cute.”

Kyungsoo snorts. “Jongin’s adorable, you’re right,” he says and delights in Baekhyun’s affronted gasp, like he’s seconds away from reminding Kyungsoo that _he_ is cute, too. Kyungsoo laughs and adds before Baekhyun can say anything of the sort, “But he’s like my little brother. So you can relax.”

There’s a pause. Then Baekhyun sniffs and says, “I am perfectly relaxed.”

Kyungsoo hums disbelievingly, but he can’t help himself from smiling stupidly up at the ceiling. Baekhyun really is cute.

“Anyway,” Baekhyun says after a moment, clearing his throat. “You’re really handsome even when you’re not wearing your glasses. That’s just not fair.”

“Shut up, Baekhyun,” Kyungsoo mutters, even though he’s growing a little warm along the back of his neck. He rolls over onto his side so he can press part of his face into his pillow. He needs to sleep. He needs to take out his contacts. He needs to get out of these clothes. And yet he thinks he could keep talking to Baekhyun longer, as long as he wanted. He checks the time. It’s almost two in the morning now. He sighs.

“I should get to bed,” he says, wondering if his reluctance is audible in his voice. “It’s been a long day.”

“Yeah, of course,” Baekhyun says, and Kyungsoo is probably just imagining the disappointment in _his_ voice.

“Thank you for this though,” Kyungsoo says before he can think twice. “It was nice—just talking to you like this.”

“Anytime, Kyungsoo,” Baekhyun says, his voice warm and soft and full of promise. “Anytime.”

❖

Despite sleeping late, Kyungsoo wakes early and can’t quite fall back asleep. He groans, rubbing at his face, before dragging himself out of bed for a much-needed shower. His flight isn’t until the afternoon, so he has some time to kill at home, enjoy breakfast with his family, pack up his things, and then head to the airport.

He finds his mother in the kitchen after he’s dressed in simple sweatpants and a shirt that he’ll just wear on his flight and greets her with a kiss on the cheek.

“Hi, sweetheart,” she says with a smile, “try this.”

She holds up a spoon with a little of the jjuk she’s making on the stove and Kyungsoo tastes it, pursing his lips in thought as she looks at him expectantly.

“It’s good,” he says with a smile. “But needs more salt.”

She laughs, swatting at his arm as if in reprimand for questioning her cooking skills, but then reaches for the salt anyway. He watches her cook for a few moments, enjoying the peace and quiet of the kitchen and the soothing sound of the burner from the stove.

“Do you need help with anything?” he asks as he peels away from his mother’s side to get something to drink. “When is Seungsoo and Sooyoung coming?”

“It’s still early,” his mother says. “I told them to be here by ten so we can eat and it’s barely nine.” She glances over her shoulder at him. “I thought you’d be sleeping in more, too. It’s always so hard to get you up.”

Kyungsoo laughs because it’s true. He’s never really been a morning person. He pours a glass of orange juice for himself and says, “I don’t know. I just woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep.” He puts the juice back in the fridge and then grins teasingly at his mother. “Why? Are you looking to get rid of me, mom?”

She swats him again for that one, but laughs too. “Of course not, dear,” she says. “I’m just surprised. Since I could hear you talking on the phone so late last night. Why didn’t you tell me you were seeing someone?”

Kyungsoo splutters mid-sip, spilling juice down his chin. He quickly sets the glass aside and reaches for napkins, but his mother beats him to it, grabbing a dish towel from the oven handle and patting his face with it. His ears burn as he looks into her knowing, amused eyes.

“I’m—I’m not seeing anyone,” he says, cringing when he sounds unconvincing even to himself.

She raises a brow at him. “Don’t play dumb with me, Kyungsoo-yah,” she says. “I heard you laughing and whispering for hours.”

“I was trying to be quiet,” Kyungsoo mutters. “I’m sorry if I kept you up.”

Her expression softens at that and she pats his cheek before pulling away, tossing the towel to the counter and returning to the stove. “You didn’t,” she says. “It was hard for me to sleep last night, is all. So much on my mind after such an eventful day.” She chuckles, shaking her head, and then grins at Kyungsoo. “Your father slept like a log, of course. If anything it’s his snoring that kept me up.”

That makes Kyungsoo laugh too, because he knows how awful his dad’s snoring is. He’s surprised he didn’t hear it himself through the walls, but then maybe he was too busy focusing on the comforting sound of Baekhyun’s voice instead.

He flushes, reaches for his glass again and takes another sip of his drink, mulling everything around in his head. He doesn’t like hiding things from his mother, or lying to her in general, even if it’s _not_ a lie, because he and Baekhyun aren’t dating. Even if the more he thinks about it, the more he realizes he wouldn’t mind it if they were. In just a few short days, he’s grown rather attached to Baekhyun.

But that’s something to unpack later, so he settles for the simplest explanation. “There _is_ someone I’m interested in,” he says slowly, “but we’re not dating. He asked me to call him last night after the wedding and we just talked about our day. It’s nothing serious.”

 _Yet_ , his mind unhelpfully supplies, but he pushes that thought away as well.

His mother hums, considering, and then asks, “What is he like? Is he cute?”

Kyungsoo laughs. “Yeah,” he says. “He’s cute.” He smiles down at his glass, staring into the orange liquid as if it will help him get through his conversation. “He’s funny,” he adds, looking back up. “You’d like him. He’s even Korean.”

His mother beams at that, clapping her hands together. “I approve already,” she says and Kyungsoo shakes his head, but is somewhat pleased. “He’s already got you smiling like this,” she adds, reaching over to pinch Kyungsoo’s cheek. “He must be good.” Then she releases his face and points a finger at him. “Don’t let him get away.”

“I’ll do my best,” Kyungsoo says solemnly, but dissolves into laughter just as his mother does.

❖

“Did you have a good vacation?” Junmyeon asks early Monday morning.

Kyungsoo looks up from where he’s been checking inventory on vegetables in the stock room, nudges his glasses up his nose. He smiles and nods. “Yeah, it was great,” he says, glancing back to the checklist before him. He jots a note into his notebook and then stands, groaning a little after being crouched down for awhile. “And you know how I feel about weddings.”

“At least you didn’t have to cook for this one,” Junmyeon laughs.

“Oh, believe me, my brother tried,” Kyungsoo says, but he’s glad too. If Seungsoo and Sooyoung had lived in L.A., there would’ve been no doubt in his mind that the reception would’ve taken place here.

“Well, it’s good to have you back,” Junmyeon says, clapping Kyungsoo on the back as he follows him down the aisle. “Between us two, you’re my favorite chef here.”

Kyungsoo snorts. “You just like that I haven’t taken your favorite dish off rotation yet,” he says and Junmyeon shrugs like he doesn’t know what Kyungsoo’s talking about. “How did things go while I was gone?”

“Smoothly,” Junmyeon says, tucking his hands into the pockets of his expensive navy slacks. “There was one small incident with a picky customer but Sehun handled himself well while serving them and we didn’t have too much trouble getting them to calm down.”

“Good,” Kyungsoo says, “I’ll check in with Sehun about it later when he arrives, just to make sure he’s okay.”

Junmyeon smiles and nods, pleased. “Let me know if you need anything,” he says. “I’ve gotta get back up front.”

“Duty calls,” Kyungsoo says with a small laugh. “I’ll come find you during my lunch break and bother you then.”

“Looking forward to it,” Junmyeon replies, and with a wave he’s gone, leaving Kyungsoo alone in the stock room, surrounded by large shelves of dry foods and ingredients.

He sighs, runs a hand through his hair, and looks back down at his notebook. He’s just got a few more things to check for inventory and hopefully by then the rest of the kitchen staff will have come in for work.

While Kyungsoo didn’t take a particularly long vacation, it’s the longest one he’s had in quite some time. It’s only his first day back after his vacation too, but already he feels exhausted. A few days of sleeping in made it difficult waking up this morning and checking inventory is boring, tedious, lonely work.

He is glad that his job as head chef means that he’s practically always busy from the moment he arrives at the restaurant to the minute he clocks out, but it’s definitely going to be a struggle getting back into the swing of things.

He pulls his phone from his pocket to check on the time, and instead feels his spirits lift at the text on his phone from Baekhyun.

 _i hope that ur still sleeping and don’t have to be awake at such a godforsaken time of day_ , his message reads, followed by a number of skull and sleepy-face emojis.

Kyungsoo grins, tucks his notebook under his arm so he can type up a response. _Unfortunately I’m not that lucky_ , he says. _I’m already at work. What are you doing up so early?_

_u know u never did tell me what it is u do_  
_i’m technically up for work too. one last important breakfast to attend before i can finally head to the airport and go home_  
_disappointed that our flights didn’t match on the way back :( would’ve liked to have had another airport date with you :(_

“Unbelievable,” Kyungsoo mutters under his breath, but he’s laughing a little, because Baekhyun really is unbelievable—how is it so easy for him to say these things? Kyungsoo is always so unprepared.

 _Stop flirting and get dressed_ , he sends back and then tucks his phone away again in favor of gently smacking his palms to his cheeks.

He doesn’t have time to let Baekhyun frazzle him like this, especially before it’s even nine in the morning. He has work to do.

The rest of the day goes by easily; despite the early start to the day and the long hours, Kyungsoo is happy to be back in the kitchen, preparing the ingredients and cooking the meals he’s so proud of with his enthusiastic staff. He checks in with Sehun like he said he would, makes sure he doesn’t feel uncomfortable about being on the floor and ruffles Sehun’s hair when he acts like what happened is no big deal.

“I’m just looking out for you, kid,” Kyungsoo says, laughing as Sehun swats his hand away.

“I’m not a kid,” he says petulantly but Kyungsoo doesn’t miss his small smile when he turns away to get back to work.

He has a quick lunch with Junmyeon later in the day, sitting in Junmyeon’s office with a bowl of leftover chicken pasta he had made last night for dinner. Junmyeon tells him about a date he went on over the weekend with an old college classmate he’d recently reconnected with and he sounds so excited and hopeful about it, Kyungsoo is barely able to tease him.

It does make him think about Baekhyun though, and how they had promised to meet up when they’re both back in L.A. He wonders if he should make the first move, but then remembers Baekhyun isn’t even back yet, and also doesn’t want to appear too eager. It’s probably best to let Baekhyun get home and settle in again before asking if he wants to meet.

He does check his phone though, and is happy to find another message from Baekhyun. It’s another photo, this time a regular selfie of his face, partially hidden under a bucket hat of all things. His eyes look soft and sleepy, his pink lips pursed in a sort of pout.

 _finally at the airport_ , Baekhyun’s message reads. _settle an argument for me: bucket hats are cute, right?_

Kyungsoo can’t help but laugh. _Bucket hats are ridiculous_ , he responds, and then considers for a moment, biting his lower lip, before he adds, _But I suppose you look pretty cute in one._

He’s not entirely sure if Baekhyun’s already on the plane and can’t see his messages until his phone lights up with Baekhyun’s reply, three surprised, blushing emoji followed by, _u think i’m cute?_

Kyungsoo drops his head against the top edge of his phone, groans softly in dismay. He walked right into that one. He doesn’t want to give Baekhyun the satisfaction of throwing him off guard again, so instead of taking his words back, he sends: _What would you do if I said yes?_

He stares at this phone, watches the three dots flash on the screen as Baekhyun’s types. Then: _i would tell u i think ur cute too 8)_

“God,” he mutters, shaking his head but unable to fight the smile off his face.

“What’s up?” Junmyeon asks, swirling around in his chair to look at him.

“Nothing important,” Kyungsoo says. “Just a friend being annoying.”

Junmyeon squints at him like he doesn’t quite believe it, but thankfully doesn’t press. “That reminds me,” he says instead. “Did you hear about what happened with the overnight manager?”

“No,” Kyungsoo says, glancing at his phone just long enough to send Baekhyun a gif of some cartoon character lying face down on the floor because it seems to be the most appropriate response. Then he tucks his phone away to listen to Junmyeon and finish his lunch without any extra distractions.

When he heads back to the kitchen some ten minutes later, he stops to check his messages again and finds two from Baekhyun. The first is about ten laughing emojis. The second is a short and sweet text that reads, _on the plane now so i gotta say goodbye :( talk to u soon!_

Kyungsoo smiles and types, _Let me know when you land_. He sends it off before he can think twice about it. There’s nothing wrong about wanting to know that Baekhyun makes it safely back across the country.

He has a hard time convincing himself that’s all it really is.

❖

The week passes slowly like this: waking early for work, spending the day in the kitchen, occasional breaks with Junmyeon and sometimes with Chanyeol when he stops by with a bag of take out, and collapsing in bed late at night, too tired to do much else other than fall right asleep.

Only there’s something different now, in between Kyungsoo’s regular routine. Now there’s Baekhyun, filling in the spaces of Kyungsoo’s day with his lively personality. He texts all the time, even when Kyungsoo is too busy to respond until hours later. Photos of his lunch, of the city view from his office window, of his fancy shoes when he’s bored in a meeting. He tells Kyungsoo about the long line at Starbucks in the morning or asks him about whether he should wear a red or black tie to dinner with a client.

He calls too, at night, once he knows Kyungsoo is home and Kyungsoo puts his phone on speaker mode and lets Baekhyun’s bright chatter fill up his quiet apartment as he fixes himself a late dinner or washes the dishes.

It’s on one of these nights that Baekhyun suddenly asks, “Tell me why you’re on Tinder.”

Kyungsoo is so startled by the question, he drops the plate he’s been washing to the bottom of the sink. Thankfully it doesn’t break, just clatters loudly against the metal, and he picks it back up carefully to rinse it off again. “Why are you asking about that?” he asks Baekhyun, making sure to speak a little louder over the rush of the faucet so Baekhyun can hear him through the speaker.

“I was just thinking about it, I guess,” he says. “You don’t really strike me as the kind of guy to be on Tinder in the first place.” He pauses for a moment, then adds, “Besides, if it wasn’t for Tinder, we never would’ve met.”

That makes Kyungsoo laugh. “Actually, if it wasn’t for _you_ creeping over my shoulder and being shameless enough to call me out on passing over your profile, we never would’ve met.”

There’s a much longer pause this time, long enough that Kyungsoo wonders if he maybe said something wrong, but then Baekhyun huffs loudly and says, sounding rather frustrated, “I kinda hate that I can’t even deny that.”

“I’m not really complaining that you did it,” Kyungsoo says, because he’s not, and he doesn’t want Baekhyun to think that he’s been unhappy by it all this time. He adds, “Also you’re right. I’m not really the kind of guy to use Tinder. My friend stole my phone one night awhile back and downloaded the app and set it up for me. He thinks I’m lonely.” He leaves out the part about how Chanyeol only did it because Kyungsoo had complained about going through a dry spell.

“Are you?” Baekhyun asks, and he sounds kind of amused.

Kyungsoo hesitates for a moment, staring down at the soapy water in the sink. He sighs, shakes the excess water off the plate, and sets it onto the drying rack on the counter. “Not particularly,” he answers eventually, and it’s more honest than he normally would be with someone he’s only met once. But Baekhyun is...different. He’s already made a space in Kyungsoo’s life in a way that Kyungsoo isn’t uncomfortable with and he doesn’t want to lie. He doesn’t really have any reason to lie to Baekhyun about this.

“I’m not necessarily looking for a relationship,” Kyungsoo says. “I’m always busy.”

“But you have nosy friends who think you need to get laid,” Baekhyun laughs.

Kyungsoo grins as he finishes washing off the utensils he used for dinner. “Sounds like you’ve been in the same situation,” he says.

“I’m busy a lot, too,” Baekhyun says. “I travel a lot for work and even though I meet a lot of people because of it, I’m not always looking to mix business and pleasure, you know? Tinder comes in handy for that, and, well, I’m sure you’ve realized that I’m not exactly shy about talking to strangers.”

“You don’t say,” Kyungsoo responds dryly and Baekhyun snickers. Kyungsoo kind of wishes he could see Baekhyun’s face, see the way his face lights up with his laughter, the way his eyes sparkle with his amusement. Instead he cuts off the faucet and dries off his hands and enjoys the sound of Baekhyun’s voice as he speaks again.

“Once I needed a last-minute date to a dinner I had to attend for work,” Baekhyun says. “I updated my profile to explain that’s all I was looking for and got like ten matches in the first hour.” He laughs.

“That’s pretty impressive,” Kyungsoo says, and tries not to think about the kind of people Baekhyun might have matched with, whether or not those matches ever led to anything.

“Why’d you bother keeping your account if your friend made it for you?” Baekhyun asks as Kyungsoo grabs a beer from the fridge and heads for the couch.

He props his feet up onto the coffee table and twists open the bottle, takes a long sip before he replies. “You’re not the only one who’s had successful matches,” he says simply. Kyungsoo doesn’t use the app very often, most of the time he honestly forgets he even has it on his phone. But there have been a few times when he’s craved a bit of companionship and the app’s come in handy. That’s what it’s for anyway, isn’t it?

Baekhyun makes a small sound, like acknowledgement. “Now I’m a little jealous,” he says, and he sounds so serious it surprises Kyungsoo. “I wanna match with you too.”

Kyungsoo bites his lip to keep himself from smiling too widely. He takes another sip from his beer so he can mull over the words he wants to say, figure out exactly the best way to say them. “I think you’ve gotten more than just a match already, don’t you?” he says. “I haven’t talked on the phone like this with anyone else I’ve met on the app.”

“Well,” Baekhyun says slowly. “I suppose that makes me feel a little better.”

“Maybe you’ll feel even better if we meet up again,” Kyungsoo says smoothly, hoping he’s not being too presumptuous or too forward. He knows he wants to see Baekhyun again, and he’s pretty sure Baekhyun would like to meet too, but they haven’t talked about it since they parted ways at the D.C. airport.

“God, yes, that definitely would make me feel better,” Baekhyun says immediately, but then lets out a deep sigh. “Unfortunately, I’m leaving for another trip in a few days and I’ve got so much work to do before then.”

Kyungsoo’s gut sinks, disappointment spreading through his veins. He takes a drink from his beer and slumps back against the couch, blinks at the ceiling for a moment. He doesn’t want to make Baekhyun feel bad about being busy, especially when it comes to work. That’s something Kyungsoo understands all too well. He says, “Where are you headed?”

“Chicago,” Baekhyun says. “I leave Monday morning and I’m there all week. If you don’t mind waiting...then, well, maybe we can meet up when I get back?”

Kyungsoo taps at his phone, brings up his calendar. Next weekend, he actually has Saturday off and an evening shift on Sunday. Plenty of time to hopefully meet up with Baekhyun.

“Actually,” he says with a smile, “that might just work out perfectly.”

“Really?” Baekhyun says, and Kyungsoo is grateful to hear the hopefulness, the excitement in his voice. It reassures him that Baekhyun really does want this. “Wow, well, then, let’s plan for that, okay? Try to keep your weekend open.”

Kyungsoo laughs, but he’s already planning just that. “Alright,” he says. “We can figure out the details later this week.”

“Great,” Baekhyun says happily. “I’m already looking forward to it.”

“Yeah,” Kyungsoo says, and he definitely doesn’t have to lie about this. “Me, too.”

❖

Chanyeol sneezes. Kyungsoo glances up from the cat sprawled in his lap to look at Chanyeol at the other end of the couch. “Are you sure you’re gonna be okay?” he asks, gently stroking the cat’s back.

“Yes,” Chanyeol mutters, sniffling a little. “I took my usual allergy meds before coming over here so I’m sure they’ll kick in soon.”

“I don’t mind throwing Tan into the bedroom, Chanyeol,” Jongdae says as he joins them in his living room, handing Chanyeol a beer before he flops back into the armchair to Kyungsoo’s right. Tan peers up at Jongdae from Kyungsoo’s lap, but then settles back down, and Kyungsoo smiles, leaning back slightly against the couch to get more comfortable.

“Please don’t throw your cat anywhere,” Chanyeol says, sounding sad about it. “If it gets any worse, I’ll let you know.” He eyes Tan, part trepidation and part longing. “Just keep him over there for now.”

“I don’t think he’s moving anytime soon,” Kyungsoo laughs.

“Enough about my cat,” Jongdae says. “I haven’t seen you losers in weeks, let’s talk about something interesting.”

Kyungsoo rolls his eyes but Chanyeol laughs and easily takes the bait. It has been awhile since Kyungsoo’s seen his friends, and it’s nice to sit back and listen to Chanyeol regale them with a story about the weird lady who called into his radio show a few days ago.

Kyungsoo pets Tan gently and enjoys Chanyeol and Jongdae’s loud excitement. When there’s a knock at the door for the food they ordered and Chanyeol and Jongdae are too busy arguing to stop, Kyungsoo gets up to answer, earning a rather disdainful look from Tan.

They put on Breaking Bad and eat pizza and chicken wings while sitting around the coffee table. Jongdae brings out extra napkins and says, “You guys know how Minseok is. Don’t make a mess.”

“Where is Minseok, anyway?” Chanyeol asks around a mouthful of garlic bread.

“Chicago?” Jongdae says. “Or was it Seattle? God, I can never remember. He’s been traveling quite a bit recently. Lots of important doctor business out of state, I guess.”

Kyungsoo has to bite his tongue to keep himself from blurting out that he has a friend in Chicago right now too. Jongdae and Chanyeol don’t really need to know about Baekhyun. Aside from when Kyungsoo had called Jongdae in a panic at the airport after he’d first met Baekhyun two weeks ago, Kyungsoo hasn’t brought him up. It’s not that he doesn’t trust his friends about it, but that he knows he will never, ever hear the end of it if he tells them that he and Baekhyun are…

Kyungsoo cringes, takes another bite of his pizza. He’s not really sure _what_ he and Baekhyun are. He thinks it’s probably best to wait until he’s certain before he tells his friends anything.

He doesn’t expect to come back from the bathroom later in the night to Chanyeol holding Kyungsoo’s own phone up and yelling, “How come you don’t have any matches on Tinder?”

Kyungsoo snatches his phone out of Chanyeol’s hand and slugs him hard in the shoulder with a fist. “Why’re you snooping around my phone?” he demands, feeling his face burn and quickly checking to see if he missed any possible messages from Baekhyun that Chanyeol might’ve seen.

Thankfully, there’s nothing there, just the Tinder app open to Kyungsoo’s profile. He sighs and slumps back onto the couch and kicks lightly at Chanyeol’s leg when he tries leaning into his space.

“I was just curious,” Chanyeol says, stretching his arms over his head and his legs out over Kyungsoo’s lap, easily knocking Kyungsoo’s feet away. “You haven’t mentioned meeting anyone in awhile.”

“Because I haven’t,” Kyungsoo lies smoothly. He stares down at the open app on his screen, then swiftly closes out of it. “I’ve been thinking of deleting Tinder anyway. I barely use it.”

Chanyeol makes a noise of disbelief, squinting slightly at Kyungsoo. “Really?” he says. “A couple of months ago you seemed to be using it pretty regularly.”

Kyungsoo shrugs and looks away, reaches for his second bottle of beer that’s still halfway full and takes a sip. He refuses to be embarrassed by Chanyeol pointing out how he used to hook up with people often awhile back. “I’m too busy these days for that,” is all he says after the silence stretches on just a bit too long. He takes another sip of his beer and doesn’t think about how he’s rather hoping he won’t need Tinder around for casual sex anyway, if this _thing_ —whatever it is—with Baekhyun works out.

Chanyeol seems to accept this answer. He nods and rubs the back of his head, slouching down on the couch until he can rest against the arm of the couch. “You have been pretty busy lately,” he says and that’s that. He turns his attention back to the television and Kyungsoo lets out a brief sigh of relief.

When he looks away from Chanyeol, he catches Jongdae’s eye and startles, realizing Jongdae’s been rather quiet this whole time. “What’s up?” he asks, apprehensive about the serious expression on Jongdae’s face.

“Nothing, nothing,” Jongdae says easily, smiling warmly at Kyungsoo like he wasn’t just staring him down. “Are you free on Saturday night?”

Kyungsoo nods before he thinks about it, cursing mentally when he remembers he was meant to keep his weekend open for when Baekhyun returns from his trip. They talked about it last night, that he lands late on Friday, but haven’t yet finalized any details about when to meet up. He supposes it would be in bad form to decline whatever Jongdae might be planning for a potential date with Baekhyun that hasn’t even been discussed yet.

“Wanna join me and Minseok for dinner?” Jongdae asks. “I already asked Chanyeol, but he said he’s busy.” Jongdae rolls his eyes like he finds Chanyeol’s excuse bullshit but grins when Chanyeol yells, “I _am_!” without even looking away from the television. Jongdae turns back to Kyungsoo and adds, “There’s this new fancy restaurant in town that Minseok’s been dying to try out and well, you are our resident chef friend so we figure you should be there to make sure we’re not ordering blindly.”

Kyungsoo laughs at that. “Are you sure we can’t just go to McDonald’s or something?”

Jongdae laughs too, leaning back onto his hands pressed against the floor. “Like you’re not the one who makes a big deal about Michelin-star restaurants,” he says, to which Kyungsoo unfortunately has no response. “Like I said, it was Minseok’s idea. He’s trying to make it up to me for being so busy with work lately.”

That has Kyungsoo squinting a little. “Wait, is this a date?” he asks Jongdae, shifting on the couch until he’s more comfortable. “Am I gonna be third-wheeling?”

“Nope,” Jongdae says, a little too quickly and a little too cheerfully to not be entirely suspicious. “I wouldn’t have asked you if it was a date, obviously.”

Kyungsoo hums, not completely convinced, but Jongdae laughs and says, “Besides, since it seems like you’ve forgotten, Saturday _is_ my birthday, so of course I want you there.”

“Shit,” Kyungsoo mutters, because he had forgotten. “Sorry, Jongdae. Of course I’ll come.”

“Great!” Jongdae says loudly, clapping his hands together. “Make sure to dress nicely. I’ll text you the details about it later, yeah?”

“Sure,” Kyungsoo agrees, amused by Jongdae’s excitement.

It’s not until much later, after Chanyeol’s fallen asleep on the couch and Kyungsoo’s taken up on Jongdae’s offer to crash in the guest bedroom for the night instead of taking a cab home, does he pull out his phone and text Baekhyun.

_Hey, just letting you know that I’ll be busy Saturday night. It’s my friend’s birthday._

He doesn’t expect a response; it’s late, and Baekhyun is in Chicago, meaning that it’s even _later_ for him, but a few moments later Baekhyun’s message appears on the screen.

 _funny, i was just gonna tell u the same thing actually_ , he says. _i would suggest lunch instead but honestly i think i’m gonna be dead for most of the day after flying in, so what about sunday? are u working? what about lunch then?_

 _I have an evening shift_ , Kyungsoo sends back. _So lunch on Sunday is perfect_.

Baekhyun sends back about fifty exclamation points and excited emojis, some of which don’t seem to make any sense in combination to those around them. It all makes Kyungsoo laugh regardless and he grins at the screen as he types back a response.

 _Yeah, I’m excited too.  
See you soon_.

❖

Saturday night rolls around after a very long week. Kyungsoo is grateful for the day off. One of the perks of working at a hotel restaurant is that shifts are more flexible. Between him and the other head chef on rotation, Kyungsoo gets the occasional day off much more frequently than he had when he’d worked at standalone restaurants.

He sleeps in and spends the afternoon lazily doing laundry and cleaning up around the apartment. He makes a simple sandwich for lunch and stretches out on the couch to eat, letting the television play the news for background noise as he replies to a couple of texts from his mother and Chanyeol on his phone.

It’s a quiet, relaxing day. When he starts to feel a little cooped up, he walks down to the nearest market and picks up a few things missing from his fridge. He buys a small little cactus from the gardening section as well and places it in the middle of his coffee table when he gets home, smiling down at it appreciatively.

He takes his time getting ready that night, half focused on primping and half watching Forensic Files on Netflix, and messages Baekhyun in-between it all. Baekhyun’s sent him a couple of photos throughout his day, a picture of a cute poodle he met on a run and his half-demolished lunch. Kyungsoo sends back a photo of his new cactus and a poorly-taken selfie that mostly shows half his face, just because he knows it’ll annoy Baekhyun immensely.

He meets Jongdae outside the restaurant ten minutes before seven, dressed in his best black trousers and a deep red button-up shirt. It’s still pretty warm out for mid-September in L.A. so Kyungsoo eagerly wants to get inside, but Jongdae stops him just by the door, a hand at his elbow.

“Don’t be mad,” he says as a way of greeting and Kyungsoo immediately narrows his eyes through his glasses.

“That’s ominous,” he says. “What did you do?”

“It’s nothing _bad_ ,” Jongdae says quickly, but he looks a little uncertain as he says it, like he thinks Kyungsoo will believe otherwise. “And it’s not—it’s not really a set-up, okay? I mean, if you end up liking him it definitely could be _considered_ a set-up, in which case you’d totally owe me for not being alone forever and— _ow_!”

Jongdae wrenches his arm away from Kyungsoo, rubbing the skin where Kyungsoo had pinched him, hard.

“Jongdae,” he says as evenly as he can and Jongdae deflates.

“Okay, okay. I invited one of my friends to meet us for dinner too. He works with Minseok and was just in Chicago with him and I thought it’d be nice to have dinner with all of us and I think you’d like him, okay?” Jongdae says in a rush, like the longer he talks the more chances Kyungsoo will have to pinch him again.

Kyungsoo is considering it, honestly, but Jongdae looks mostly sincere and apologetic for not telling Kyungsoo sooner. Besides, Kyungsoo knows that if Jongdae had mentioned he was trying to set him up with anyone, Kyungsoo wouldn’t have shown up tonight. He sighs, wishes he could run a hand through his hair but he actually put some effort into styling it, so instead he removes his glasses and rubs his eyes.

“It might be your birthday, but I think _you’re_ the one who’s gonna owe me dessert tonight, Jongdae Kim,” he says after a long moment, sliding his glasses back on.

Jongdae slowly grins and smacks Kyungsoo on the shoulder, finally leading the way into the restaurant. “If all goes well, you might be wanting to skip dessert altogether,” he says, and waggles his brows pointedly. He yelps when Kyungsoo pinches his ass.

“Please be quiet,” Kyungsoo says but can’t hide his smile when Jongdae pouts. It’s impossible to be upset with Jongdae about anything.

Jongdae leads the way to a table in the middle of the restaurant where his husband, Minseok, is waiting. There’s a man sitting across from him and as Kyungsoo approaches he realizes with a start that the person Jongdae’s trying to set him up with is none other than _Baekhyun._

It takes Baekhyun a moment to even notice him, smiling instead at Minseok when he stands up to greet Jongdae with a sweet kiss. Kyungsoo is pretty sure he’s lost all capability of speech because he can’t find anything to say in his shock, inching slowly toward the empty chair to Baekhyun’s right.

“Hey, Baekhyun,” Jongdae says brightly, confirming that the man sitting there is, in fact, Baekhyun, and Kyungsoo isn’t just hallucinating or something. “I wanted to introduce you to a friend of mine—”

And of course, that’s when Baekhyun looks, turning to where Kyungsoo is still standing, and his eyes widen in complete surprise. “Kyungsoo?” he says before Jongdae even has a chance to finish speaking, stumbling out of his chair and to his feet as well. “What—What are you doing here?”

Kyungsoo still can’t conjure up any words. He thinks maybe his brain has shut down. Of course Jongdae knows Baekhyun. Of course Baekhyun is the person Jongdae wants to set him up with. Of course this is Kyungsoo’s life, because he makes the mistake of passing on a hot guy on Tinder _once_ and suddenly that guy is everywhere.

He swallows thickly, tries desperately to get his brain to cooperate again, but it’s utterly impossible. He can’t take his eyes off Baekhyun. This is the first time he’s even _seen_ Baekhyun in person since they parted ways at the D.C. airport. It feels like a lifetime ago.

Baekhyun looks entirely different and yet the same, standing here now in his gray pinstripe pants and simple black, buttoned shirt. He looks _good_. Really good. It’s like Kyungsoo somehow managed to forget just how attractive Baekhyun is in the past few weeks and now it’s all rushing back, the warmth of his brown eyes, the pink of his lips, the breadth of his shoulders.

Fuck.

“Wait,” Jongdae says, his voice cutting through Kyungsoo’s stunned silence. “You guys know each other?”

Kyungsoo licks his lips. He doesn’t miss the way Baekhyun’s gaze zones onto his mouth almost immediately. A flush dances up his neck and he tears his eyes away from Baekhyun’s handsome face to look at Jongdae, except Jongdae looks infuriatingly gleeful, so Kyungsoo stares at a spot right above his shoulder instead. “Yeah,” he says, finally finding his voice. “We’ve met.”

“Kyungsoo’s the guy I told you about,” Baekhyun continues. He’s still looking at Kyungsoo, he can feel it, but Kyungsoo refuses to look back. “The one I met at the airport.”

“Oh my god,” Jongdae says and now he _sounds_ gleeful too. Kyungsoo bites back a groan. Of course Baekhyun’s told Jongdae his side of the story, too, albeit not in great detail or he suspects Jongdae would’ve been able to put two-and-two together. Either way, Kyungsoo is never going to live this down.

Thankfully he’s saved from Jongdae’s impending outburst due to the angel that is Minseok, who places a hand to Jongdae’s arm to calm him and says smoothly, “Why don’t we all sit down and order first before we get tangled up in whatever fascinating tale I’m sure you both have to share.”

“It’s really not that fascinating,” Kyungsoo says, embarrassment creeping up the back of his neck. He sits down next to Baekhyun, agonizingly wishing he could have swapped seats with Jongdae. He reaches for the glass of water that’s already been brought over to give him something to focus on that isn’t Baekhyun beside him.

“Pretty sure it is,” Jongdae says with a sly smile and Kyungsoo has to remind himself that they’re in a fancy restaurant and it definitely wouldn’t be proper to kick Jongdae under the table.

A waiter stops by the table before Kyungsoo can figure out another way to wipe that smirk off his friend’s face and checks in to see if Kyungsoo or Jongdae want anything to drink. Kyungsoo asks for a glass of wine since he knows he’s gonna need it to get through the night and Jongdae follows suit, additionally requesting a few extra minutes so they can all look over the menu. Kyungsoo picks his up and tries not to look like he’s intentionally hiding behind it, but is probably not very successful. He’s hyper-aware of Baekhyun sitting next to him, that if he moves slightly, he’d probably bump Baekhyun’s leg with his knee.

It’s ridiculous. He knows it is. It’s not like he hasn’t talked with Baekhyun at all in the three weeks since they last saw each other. They call each other a few times a week. They text all the time. Kyungsoo was _just_ messaging Baekhyun on the cab ride to the restaurant, not twenty minutes ago!

And yet, he’s weirdly nervous. He’s afraid to say something to break the tension. He’s careful not to touch him or lean in too close. He doesn’t want to be this way, but he can’t help it, and the longer he stares at the menu in his hands, not actually reading anything on the page, the more he begins contemplating if he could pretend to use the bathroom and just...never come back.

The thought reminds him of how he had done the same when he’d first met Baekhyun at the airport, how he’d been so mortified he’d run to the bathroom to hide. A laugh bubbles out of him before he can help it, laughing at himself for his own inability to handle shocking social situations.

“What’s so funny?” Jongdae says, looking over from where he’s been discussing what to eat with Minseok.

Kyungsoo hides his laughter behind his menu, shakes his head. Beside him, he can feel Baekhyun watching, and suddenly Kyungsoo isn’t so afraid of looking at him. Baekhyun’s eyes are clearly bright with amusement when Kyungsoo turns to him, and his mouth is curled into a little smile. He doesn’t look as surprised as he did a few minutes earlier when Kyungsoo first arrived. He looks like the Baekhyun Kyungsoo remembers at the D.C. airport, warm and handsome even after a five-hour flight, happy to have Kyungsoo’s number on his phone.

“It’s really a small world, isn’t it?” he says to Baekhyun simply, knowing he’ll understand.

And he does. Kyungsoo watches the way Baekhyun’s lips stretch slowly wider and wider until he’s grinning, too. He rests a hand on Kyungsoo’s knee under the table and Kyungsoo doesn't flinch, doesn’t shy away, enjoying the warmth of his touch and the warmth of Baekhyun’s smile.

“Just small enough, I think,” Baekhyun says.

“What the fuck is happening,” Jongdae demands from across the table.

“Not now, darling,” Minseok replies as he turns a page in the menu without looking up at any of them.

❖

Needless to say, they have a lot of explaining to do. Their waiter stops back soon after and once they’ve ordered, Jongdae is folding his arms across his chest and staring down at Kyungsoo and Baekhyun like he’s their very disappointed father.

“Tell me everything,” he says.

Kyungsoo laughs, glancing to Baekhyun who shrugs with a small smile. “What’s there to say?” Kyungsoo replies, turning back to Jongdae. He reaches for the wine a server brought over a few minutes ago and takes a sip. “We’re friends,” he adds afterward and relaxes when Baekhyun places a hand to Kyungsoo’s shoulder and confirms, confidently, “Yeah, we’re friends.”

Jongdae squints at them. “There’s something else going on here that you’re not saying,” he says. “I can tell.”

Kyungsoo rolls his eyes. He doesn’t want to give Jongdae any fuel to tease him about this for months, but he also knows _not_ telling him anything won’t stop him from being annoying so either way, it’s a lose/lose situation. He says, “Like Baekhyun said, we met at the airport, what, three weeks ago? We exchanged numbers. We’ve been keeping in touch ever since.”

“Yup,” Baekhyun says, lips popping at the end of the word. “That’s pretty much it.”

Kyungsoo hides his smile around another sip of his wine. Clearly Baekhyun is smart enough not to tell Jongdae just how often they’ve talked or that they’d already planned to meet up tomorrow.

“Hold on, hold on,” Jongdae says, raising a hand in the air to stop them from saying anymore. Beside him, Minseok is shaking his head, an amused smile on his face as he sips at his own glass of wine. He seems entertained by Jongdae’s investment in this situation. “Baekhyun making friends at an airport is totally believable, but Kyungsoo?” He gestures at Kyungsoo as if to say, _seriously?_ and Kyungsoo is only partly offended because, well, Jongdae’s not wrong.

Baekhyun laughs and leans into Kyungsoo’s side just slightly as he says, “Oh, he’s good.”

“We have unfortunately been friends for a long time,” Kyungsoo says with a sigh. “Can we talk about something else?”

“ _No_ ,” Jongdae exclaims. “I was looking forward to you guys meeting and being the one to introduce you and you’ve totally ruined all my plans and—wait.” He suddenly quiets down, staring off into the distance like he’s realized something. Kyungsoo can’t help but laugh when Minseok waves a hand in front of Jongdae’s face and says, “Babe?”

It works, jerking Jongdae back from whatever plane of existence he’d inhabited for a brief moment, but he brings with it knowledge Kyungsoo had hoped he’d never learn. A wide, smug grin stretches across his face as he pins Kyungsoo with a look. “ _Baekhyun_ is the guy you called me about, isn’t it?” he says delightfully, “the Tinder dude you said was too hot and caught you passing him over?”

“Fuck,” Kyungsoo moans and Jongdae claps his hands together like he’s just won the lottery. Kyungsoo’s certain that if they weren’t in such a fancy restaurant, he would be whooping loudly in victory.

Then, before Kyungsoo has a chance to explain anything further, Jongdae, the traitor, turns to Baekhyun and says, “Did he tell you he ran and hid in the bathroom to call me, like, right after you caught him?”

That dissolves Baekhyun into laughter again until he’s resting his forehead against Kyungsoo’s shoulder to attempt to stifle his mirth. It doesn’t work all that well, and a couple of people are glancing their way, but Kyungsoo is too pleased by the warmth of Baekhyun’s touch and the way he isn’t afraid to touch him at all to do much about it. He smiles watching Baekhyun, the way his shoulders shake and the way he peers up at Kyungsoo once he catches his breath to ask, “Did you really?”

“You really surprised me,” Kyungsoo says, face slightly warm in his embarrassment, which isn’t helped at all when Baekhyun straightens up and murmurs, “Cute,” as he settles back into his seat.

“Oh, this is _amazing_ ,” Jongdae says, watching them with sparkling, almost mischievous, eyes.

Minseok shakes his head. “I need to find you a hobby,” he says and when Jongdae turns to him to protest, kisses him to shut him up.

“Very effective,” Kyungsoo says when they pull apart, to which Jongdae turns slightly embarrassed but Minseok smirks like he’s proud of it.

“He’s been really invested in arranging this whole set up,” Minseok says, waving a hand between Kyungsoo and Baekhyun. “I’ve been hearing about it for _days_ , how well he thinks you guys would get along, how Kyungsoo could knock Baekhyun down a peg or two—”

“Hey!” Baekhyun says, mildly offended as he glares at Jongdae who merely shrugs as if to say, _am I wrong?_

Minseok laughs. “Anyway, I’m tired of hearing about it,” he says and pins Jongdae with a pointed look that Jongdae dutifully ignores. “It’s great you guys are already about ten steps ahead of Jongdae.”

“Sorry to ruin your plans,” Baekhyun snorts as Jongdae crosses his arms across his chest and looks put-out.

“No, you’re not,” Jongdae says sourly, but cracks a smile afterward. “Ahh, it’s fine. I’m just shocked. There’s definitely more going on here that you’re not saying.” He looks at Kyungsoo specifically as he says that and points a finger at him. “I’ll get it out of you eventually.”

“Unlikely,” Kyungsoo says so flatly that everyone laughs.

Their food comes soon as well, starting with a delicious tray of appetizers that they all devour far too quickly and followed by each of their entrees. Kyungsoo is already salivating at the sight of the salmon dish he’d picked, but everyone else’s meals look amazing too. He’s not surprised at all when Baekhyun whips out his phone to take about ten photos of his meal before he seems satisfied, flashing Kyungsoo a slightly sheepish smile when he catches him.

“I would send one to you but you’re already here,” he says and Kyungsoo grins.

“Probably a good thing or else I’d be pretty jealous over what you’re eating,” he says. “It looks great.”

“You can try some of it later if you want,” Baekhyun offers and before Kyungsoo can politely decline, Jongdae is laughing.

“Be careful with that, Baekhyun,” he says. “Kyungsoo will take as many chances as possible to try everything on the menu if he could.”

Baekhyun looks like he doesn’t understand the problem with that. He smiles widely at Kyungsoo and says, “Bit of a foodie?”

Kyungsoo chuckles and shrugs a shoulder. “Occupational hazard for the most part, really,” he says. He rubs the side of his neck and adds after a moment, when Baekhyun’s brows furrow quizzically, “I guess I never did tell you. I’m a chef.”

“ _Really_?” Baekhyun exclaims, looking shocked and impressed all at once.

“Yeah,” Kyungsoo confirms with another small laugh. “I work at Elyxion, the restaurant at—”

Baekhyun’s eyes go round. “What the fuck,” he says, cutting Kyungsoo off. “I’ve been there before so many times! That’s crazy—holy shit, you’re amazing.”

Kyungsoo shakes his head, laughing in embarrassment as he waves a hand at Baekhyun. “I mean, it’s possible you’ve eaten there when the other chef was in charge—”

“Don’t sell yourself short, Kyungsoo,” Minseok chimes in evenly, leaving no room for Kyungsoo to argue. “Ignore him,” he adds to Baekhyun. “He _is_ amazing.”

“Baekhyun’s got a bottomless pit for a stomach, too,” Jongdae adds with a wide grin. “Part of why I figured you guys would work well together.”

Minseok rolls his eyes and pokes Jongdae in his own stomach. “Takes one to know one, doesn’t it?” he says and Jongdae whines at him, swatting Minseok’s hand away.

As they quietly bicker, Baekhyun turns to Kyungsoo and says, “I guess when I said all you knew how to make was toast, I was really putting my foot in my mouth, huh?”

Kyungsoo grins, slices off a little piece of his salmon and pops it into his mouth. He enjoys the peppery taste of the salmon and the tartness of the lemon that cuts through it. “I mean, I do make pretty good toast,” he teases after he’s swallowed, “but I can make a lot of other things too.”

“You’re gonna have to show me sometime,” Baekhyun says. “Invite me over. Impress me.” He waggles his brows and then laughs, turning away to his own dish, a little flush of pink across his cheeks in surprising embarrassment.

“Bossy,” Kyungsoo says, but he doesn’t particularly mind it. He’s already thinking of his next day off when he could invite Baekhyun over and cook for him.

“I’d do the same but my job isn’t exactly something I can show you like that,” he says, which thankfully gives Kyungsoo the perfect opportunity to ask what Baekhyun does. “I work in public relations but for all intents and purposes I’m a lobbyist,” Baekhyun answers and then adds, “I know, I know, lobbyists have a bad rep but I like to think of myself as one of the good ones.”

“That’s probably what the bad ones say, too,” Kyungsoo drawls, but he’s surprised. He’s pretty sure he remembers Baekhyun’s Tinder profile saying “Public Affairs Consultant” and he figures that’s a more general and positive explanation of what he does.

Baekhyun laughs and says, “Touche.” He takes a bite of his chicken pasta and practically moans at the taste which makes Kyugnsoo’s ears grow hot, quickly dragging his gaze away to focus on his own meal. “Anyway, I’m helping with cancer research and I spend a lot of time meeting people and networking. That’s why I was in Chicago with Minseok. He’s one of the doctors I’ve been consulting with recently.”

Kyungsoo stares at him, somewhat stunned. Baekhyun really wasn’t kidding when he said he was an important person. All those fancy lunches and dinners he’s been attending have been for an incredibly good cause. Cancer research? What the fuck. Is Baekhyun even real?

The longer Kyungsoo remains silent, the more Baekhyun grows smug, his lips curling and his eyes shining as he says, “Oh, so maybe you are impressed, after all.”

“Shut up,” Kyungsoo retorts immediately, instinctive, his ears burning. “It’s just not what I was expecting.”

“No one ever does,” Baekhyun says airily, but he laughs at himself, clearly self-aware. “Can’t imagine why.”

“It’s because you’re an idiot,” Jongdae says, rejoining their conversation with a roll of his eyes. “You’ve got to be careful with him, Kyungsoo. He has a big head.”

Kyungsoo eyes Baekhyun and says simply, “I’ve noticed.”

“Hey,” Baekhyun protests, voice edging on a whine that makes Kyungsoo laugh. He crosses his arms over his chest and huffs, but it’s clear he’s only pretending to be offended.

As a peace offering, Kyungsoo picks up one of the roasted potatoes on his plate and drops it onto Baekhyun’s. Baekhyun stares down at it for a moment, then breaks out into a wide grin. He pierces it with his fork and pops it into his mouth, eyes widening as he chews.

“Fuck, that’s so good,” he says, and scrambles to cut a little slice of his chicken to give to Kyungsoo. “Here, you gotta try this.”

And like that, they’re all sharing bits and pieces of their meals, and Kyungsoo is wondering aloud how the chefs got certain flavor combinations to work out so well and how he’ll have to recreate them at home. Dinner continues as a lively affair, and they spend probably longer than usual simply talking amongst themselves even after they’ve all cleaned their plates.

Minseok surprises Jongdae with a small birthday cake for dessert and Jongdae both looks excited and mortified when they sing to him, Kyungsoo elbowing Baekhyun twice to keep his voice at a respectable volume. They share the cake together, a delicious chocolate raspberry combination that Kyungsoo loves, and Jongdae thanks Minseok with a rather messy, frosting kiss that has Baekhyun whistling obnoxiously at them.

By the time they’ve all had their fill of cake and Kyungsoo and Baekhyun have both handed over their birthday gifts, Kyungsoo is relaxed and happy that he came, happy even that Jongdae hid the whole Baekhyun part of the evening from him until the last minute.

“You’re not mad at me about it, are you?” Jongdae asks, clutching onto Kyungsoo’s arm as they head outside. Minseok and Baekhyun are chatting in front of them, leading the way. “I mean, I was totally right about you guys getting along. I haven’t seen you make friends with someone this quickly in years.”

Kyungsoo glances up at Baekhyun who looks beautifully windswept in the cool September evening, laughing at something Minseok’s said. “Yeah, I wonder about that,” Kyungsoo admits quietly but Jongdae shakes his head and pokes Kyungsoo in the stomach with his index fingers until Kyungsoo laughs and swats him away.

“Don’t do that,” Jongdae chastises. “Don’t overthink it. Seems like you’ve struck up a good thing here, no matter where it might lead.” Jongdae looks over at Baekhyun then too, and grins widely, making Baekhyun squint at him suspiciously when he notices. He throws an arm around Kyungsoo and leans close to whisper, “But from one friend to another, he’s ridiculously into you, so. Do with that what you will.”

Kyungsoo chuckles, partly out of embarrassment, partly out of the incredulity of everything going on, how strange and sudden of a turn his personal life has taken in a few short weeks. “I’ll keep it in mind,” he tells Jongdae, who pats his shoulder in approval and then releases him in favor of practically throwing himself onto his husband.

Minseok barely loses his balance at the sudden attack, smoothly wraps an arm around Jongdae’s waist and says, “This is nice. We should do it again sometime.”

“Sure,” Kyungsoo agrees, because it has been nice and he would like to spend more time with his friends. With Baekhyun, too.

“Do you need a ride home, Kyungsoo?” Minseok asks.

“I was gonna call an Uber—” Kyungsoo starts, holding up his phone, when Baekhyun interjects, “I can take you home, if you want.”

Kyungsoo stares at him, agape. Baekhyun looks back, hands in his pockets, all casual, but the look in his eyes betrays him, uncertainly hopeful. Kyungsoo closes his mouth, clears his throat, and says, “Well, nevermind. Guess I’ve got a ride.”

Jongdae is smirking at him from where he’s leaning against Minseok’s shoulder. Minseok looks wary, like he’s not sure about this arrangement, but accepts it when Jongdae pokes him. “All right,” he says finally. “Text me when you make it back.”

“Don’t you trust me, Minseok?” Baekhyun whines, even though he’s smiling.

“No,” Minseok says flatly, but the way he laughs afterward is enough to know he’s only kidding. “Get home safe. Both of you.”

“Yes, dad,” Baekhyun drawls, which earns him a punch to the arm. “Kyungsoo,” he cries, stumbling over to him, grabbing him by the shoulders and holding him out in front like a shield. “Save me.”

Kyungsoo’s laughing, shaking his head at the nonsense all around him. “Go home already,” he tells Minseok and Jongdae. “I’m sure you guys have more birthday plans to entertain.” Jongdae laughs loudly as Minseok looks torn between embarrassed and smug, sliding an arm around his husband’s waist and turning him down the sidewalk to where they parked.

“Call me later!” Jongdae yells just as they round the corner and disappear from view, leaving Kyungsoo still standing with a cowering Baekhyun behind him.

“Are they gone?” he asks after a moment of silence, to which Kyungsoo laughs and turns around, Baekhyun’s hands falling from his arms.

“You’re safe,” Kyungsoo confirms and Baekhyun heaves an exaggerated sigh of relief.

“My hero,” he says emphatically and then straightens up, rubs his nose. “Also, if you really don’t want me taking you home, it’s okay. I can wait with you until your ride shows up.”

Kyungsoo shakes his head. “No, it’s fine,” he says. “I was just surprised when you offered. I don’t mind.” He considers for a moment, then adds, “I just hope it’s not out of your way.”

“I don’t care if it is,” Baekhyun says bluntly, leaving Kyungsoo momentarily speechless. “Come on. My car’s this way.”

Baekhyun's car turns out to be an impressive black Audi that leaves Kyungsoo weirdly even more attracted to Baekhyun than before. Or maybe it’s because of the way he looks in the driver’s seat, his pretty fingers curled around the steering wheel. “Here,” Baekhyun says, handing Kyungsoo his unlocked phone. “Just put your address into the GPS.”

“Ah, I see what your plan is now,” Kyungsoo says as he types in his address. “You’re gonna save my address after you drop me off and use it to stalk me.”

Baekhyun cackles, sets his phone into the vent holder once Kyungsoo finishes, and slowly backs out of his parking spot. “Shit,” he says. “I gave that away too easily, didn’t I?”

Kyungsoo nods solemnly. “Gotta work on your stalking skills,” he says. “Needs more subtlety.”

“Just like my flirting, huh?” Baekhyun adds, smirking at Kyungsoo who laughs.

“That one’s easier to get used to,” he says which makes Baekhyun smile, pretty and pleased.

“Good,” he says, turning his eyes back to the road. “Because I don’t really know how to turn it off, especially around you.”

Kyungsoo feels his face heat up but he’s kind of pleased about the comment all the same. “Just drive, Baekhyun,” he says, when he can’t find anything else to say, but smiles when Baekhyun laughs and obliges.

It’s a comfortable drive. Baekhyun plays some music from his phone and they discover a shared love for Park Hyoshin. He sings along at points and his voice ranges from being silly and exaggerated to beautiful and engaging, belting out high notes like he’s a Korean pop idol. Kyungsoo’s pretty impressed but a bit too embarrassed to show off himself, despite Baekhyun egging him on when he learns Kyungsoo spent years in choir.

“I’ll get it out of you one day,” Baekhyun says seriously and Kyungsoo finds he’s already looking forward to it.

As they get closer to his apartment, he’s filled with a familiar reluctance at parting, like when they’d been at the airport in D.C. and Kyungsoo hadn’t wanted to say goodbye just yet. It’s been a great night, fun and comfortable and somewhat enlightening, learning more about Baekhyun that only makes Kyungsoo like him all that much more. Still, despite how much Kyungsoo would like the night to continue, he’s also growing a bit tired after all the socializing and wouldn’t mind finally putting on some comfy clothes and curling in bed to watch another episode of Forensic Files before he sleeps.

Besides, he thinks it would be extremely bold of him to invite Baekhyun up to his place on the first night they’ve properly met after the whole airport thing.

Baekhyun pulls up along the street by the entrance to Kyungsoo’s apartment and they both are quiet for a moment, lingering as if uncertain how to say goodbye, or if they even _want_ to say goodbye. It’s ridiculous, really, and Kyungsoo will probably laugh about it when he’s alone in his room, but now he’s trying to think of the best thing to say that isn’t just a simple _thank you_ for the ride home.

Thankfully, Baekhyun speaks up first, almost blurting out, “I know we just met today, even if it was unexpected, but I hope we’re still on for tomorrow.”

Kyungsoo relaxes, nerves fading back as he smiles. “Of course,” he says and is amused to see the way Baekhyun visibly relaxes, too. “I mean,” he continues, teasing a little, “I was definitely planning to show up so it would be good if you’re there too.”

“I will be,” Baekhyun says quickly, loudly. He cringes a little at himself and adds in a much softer voice, albeit still full of determined promise. “Definitely. Come hell or high water.”

That makes Kyungsoo laugh. “Okay, okay,” he says as he unbuckles his seatbelt. “I get it.” He grins up at Baekhyun. “See you tomorrow then.”

“Tomorrow,” Baekhyun confirms and Kyungsoo has one hand on the door handle, ready to leave, when Baekhyun suddenly adds, “I had—Tonight was really fun, you know? I’m glad we both seem to share the same nosy friend.”

“He is very nosy, isn’t he?” Kyungsoo laughs. “I suppose he means well.” He licks his lips and catches the way that Baekhyun stares at the movement unabashedly. Heat rises to his cheeks and Kyungsoo thinks that if this had been an actual date, that maybe they’d kiss now. He looks at Baekhyun, so handsome in his sharp clothes in his fancy car, and yet somehow so soft with the way he smiles and the way his eyes meet Kyungsoo’s, and he thinks he wouldn’t mind kissing Baekhyun, honestly, thinks he would like to see if Baekhyun would turn pink or if he’d laugh and kiss him back.

If the way Baekhyun is staring at his lips is any indication, Kyungsoo thinks Baekhyun might want to kiss him, too.

To Kyungsoo’s dismay, there is no kissing, not when the sudden blare of a car horn down the street startles them both out of their quiet moment. Baekhyun jumps cutely in his seat and looks flustered when Kyungsoo laughs, pushing aside all thoughts about Baekhyun’s mouth in favor of finally opening the door and stepping out.

“I had a good time tonight too,” Kyungsoo says, leaning down to look at Baekhyun through the open door and hoping his disappointment about not getting a kiss doesn’t show on his face. “See you tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow,” Baekhyun promises with another one of those beautiful smiles, and Kyungsoo slams the door shut, heads around to the front entrance of his apartment building.

He doesn’t hear Baekhyun leave until he’s let himself inside. Once in the quiet of the elevator, he sighs, thinking about Baekhyun’s pretty lips, how much he wants to kiss him, and how excited he is to see what tomorrow will bring.

❖

Kyungsoo wakes in the morning to about twenty messages from Jongdae that range from just vaguely invasive and inappropriate to downright lewd and followed by way too many eye emojis. He dutifully leaves Jongdae on read and goes back to sleep for another hour.

When he wakes again, he’s up for good even if it’s still a struggle getting out of bed. He rubs his eyes, puts on his glasses, and heads to the kitchen to make coffee. He’s supposed to meet Baekhyun in a few hours and anticipation is already bubbling up inside of him.

It’s not a date.

He tells himself this over and over again as he showers and dresses and redresses because he can’t decide if he wants to impress Baekhyun or if he just wants to be himself. Baekhyun’s already seen Kyungsoo in old sweatpants at the airport and still seems interested in him despite that so it doesn’t seem like Kyungsoo has to put in that much effort.

“It doesn’t matter anyway,” he mutters to himself as he settles on simple dark wash jeans and an ivory sweater. “It’s not a date.”

The more he says it though, the more he kind of wishes that it _is _a date. He thinks he could date Baekhyun. Baekhyun who is funny and flirty and ridiculously attractive, but also wormed his way into Kyungsoo’s life with an ease that not many people have ever managed before. And the thing is that, Kyungsoo let him. Kyungsoo wanted him to. Kyungsoo could have shut him down weeks ago when Baekhyun offered to let him sit beside him at the airport gate, could have shut him down later when Baekhyun had asked for his number, could have straight up said that he isn’t interested in anything other than just being friends.__

__Except he likes Baekhyun’s attention. He liked the way Baekhyun rested a hand on Kyungsoo’s knee at dinner or smiled slyly at him with a flirtatious quip. He even liked the way Baekhyun had so blatantly stared at his mouth last night, like he wanted to kiss Kyungsoo and tell him goodnight._ _

__Kyungsoo wanted that, too._ _

__He’s mulling this all over as he waits for Baekhyun outside of the restaurant Baekhyun had picked for lunch, his stomach growling slightly from the delicious smells wafting through the doors every time they open. He doesn’t plan to say anything about it, not really, but when he sees Baekhyun walk down the street, hands in the pockets of a leather jacket, hair peeking out underneath a beanie, he suddenly wants to know exactly where they stand._ _

__Baekhyun is all smiles when he approaches Kyungsoo, cheeks round in his clear happiness that makes it hard for Kyungsoo to do anything but smile widely back. “I hope you weren’t waiting long,” he says._ _

__“Not at all,” Kyungsoo says, and before he can talk himself out of it, he adds, “Can I ask you something before we go in?”_ _

__Baekhyun’s smile droops away and a little crease appears between his brows that Kyungsoo instinctively wants to smooth away. “Of course,” he says, looking both curious and nervous._ _

__Kyungsoo licks his lips and takes a deep breath, hoping that asking this won’t totally ruin everything they’ve built between them. “Is this a date?” he says, getting straight to the point. He’s been thinking about it for hours now and he needs to know. He thinks it’s best for them both to know right now, what they want._ _

__Baekhyun’s mouth opens and then closes and opens again. Kyungsoo chuckles softly at his stunned expression, and reaches out to curl his fingers around Baekhyun’s wrist, pulls him to the side when he notices a few people approaching from behind him to the restaurant door._ _

__Baekhyun stares down at Kyungsoo’s fingers, blinking, and then looks back up at Kyungsoo. His ears are a little red, clearly flustered by Kyungsoo’s sudden question. “I—Well—Do you want it to be?”_ _

__Kyungsoo lets himself think about it for a moment, running through everything he’s been thinking about since he woke up this morning, everything he’s thought about Baekhyun since they met days ago. It doesn’t take much for him to come to an answer; honestly he’s known it for awhile._ _

__“I think...yes,” he says after a moment. “I wouldn’t mind at all if this is a date.” He lets his fingers slip down from Baekhyun’s wrist to lace together with Baekhyun’s instead, squeezing his hand in reassurance._ _

__“Oh,” Baekhyun says, breathless, and clearly still stunned. Kyungsoo doesn’t think he’s ever seen Baekhyun quite so quiet. He really is cute and Kyungsoo kind of wants to kiss him, to see if that would restart his brain or just make him shut down even further. “Oh, wow, I wasn’t—uh—I wasn’t expecting that. Shit. Yes, then it is. A date, I mean. Definitely. I mean, I wanted it to be, but I didn’t like—This is only the first time we’ve met on our own since we, well, _met_ , you know, so—” _ _

__“It’s just one date,” Kyungsoo cuts through Baekhyun’s adorable rambling, amused by the way Baekhyun snaps his mouth shut. He smirks at him and adds, teasingly, “I never said we’d have more.”_ _

__There’s a moment’s silence, where Baekhyun gapes at Kyungsoo, surprised, before he huffs out a loud laugh. The shock of Kyungsoo’s original question seems to finally fade away, leaving Baekhyun much more like himself, smile curling across his lips and eyes shining brightly as he looks at Kyungsoo like he’s never quite looked at him before._ _

__“You’re really full of surprises, aren’t you?” Baekhyun says, his thumb gently brushing across Kyungsoo’s knuckles where they’re still lightly holding hands. “You say you’re not used to flirting but you’re not that bad with this. I don’t—You’re really straightforward in a different way.”_ _

__Kyungsoo shrugs. “It’s fun seeing you turn so pink,” he says, still enjoying the faint flush across Baekhyun’s cheeks. “It’s cute.”_ _

__That only makes Baekhyun groan and he pulls his hand out of Kyungsoo’s so he can cover his face instead. Kyungsoo laughs, delighted. “Stop,” Baekhyun whines. “I can’t believe you’re doing this to me.”_ _

__“Doing what?” Kyungsoo asks softly, reaching up to take Baekhyun’s wrists and tug them back down. “Teasing you? Asking you where we stand? Calling you cute?”_ _

__“All of the above,” Baekhyun grumbles, but he doesn’t look particularly upset about any of it. “I’ve wanted to ask you about actually dating for days, god, maybe even since the day we met, but I couldn’t tell if you were actually interested in me the way I was interested in you and—Fuck. This is so embarrassing.” He sighs, tugs one hand out of Kyungsoo’s so he can run it through his hair, and adds, “Can we go inside now?”_ _

__Kyungsoo smiles, squeezes the hand he’s still holding. “All right,” he says. “I’ll give you a respite.”_ _

__“I appreciate it,” Baekhyun says dryly and swiftly leads the way toward the door._ _

__“For the record,” Kyungsoo says as he steps up beside Baekhyun, waiting for the hostess at the front of the restaurant to turn to him, “I am interested in you.”_ _

__Kyungsoo hears Baekhyun’s sharp intake of breath, and feels the way he lets it out, shoulders sagging against Kyungsoo’s arm from how closely they’re standing. Baekhyun grasps Kyungsoo’s hand and squeezes._ _

__“Good,” he says and gives Kyungsoo a bright, beautiful smile._ _

❖

Lunch starts off maybe a little awkwardly, not necessarily because they’re nervous but because they’re both smiling too widely at each other in lieu of their recent conversation that they can’t seem to figure out anything to say. Kyungsoo feels relieved and happy and hopeful, settling into his seat at their table near one of the windows overlooking the street and fiddling with the menu. He knew, instinctively, that Baekhyun would say yes about this being a date, but it still feels so good to have actually heard it from Baekhyun, that he wants what Kyungsoo wants.

“You really surprised me back there,” Baekhyun says after they’ve both ordered and no longer have their menus to hide behind. “I wasn’t expecting that at all.”

“I’d say I’m sorry, but I’m not,” Kyungsoo laughs. “I’d been thinking about it all morning and I just—I really wanted to get it out of the way, before we came in here and everything _felt_ like a date but it wasn’t really a date.” He gives Baekhyun a wry smile. “I think that would have driven me crazy, to be honest.”

That pulls a smile across Baekhyun’s face as well. “Maybe I should be thanking you for being so brave then,” he says, “because I’m pretty sure that’s _exactly_ what I was gonna be doing, if you hadn’t said anything.”

“Then clearly I did us both a favor,” Kyungsoo says, with only a brief air of smugness. Then he laughs again and adds, “It’s good to be on the same page, isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Baekhyun agrees with a warm, soft smile, “it is.”

Things are smooth sailing from there and they have a really nice, casual lunch full of smiles and laughter and Baekhyun attempting to play footsie under the table. He pouts every time Kyungsoo doesn’t play along until Kyungsoo drags his feet back under his chair and reaches his hand out across the table to hold Baekhyun’s instead.

“Sit still,” he says in a low voice that has Baekhyun licking his lips and nodding, surprisingly obedient. Kyungsoo tucks this piece of information away for later, choosing instead to lace his fingers with Baekhyun’s and smiling at the way Baekhyun looks immensely pleased with the physical affection.

They don’t hold hands for long, even though Kyungsoo is also rather pleased by the warmth of Baekhyun’s touch. It’s impossible to eat like this and despite Baekhyun suggesting they can just feed each other, they let go and return to their plates, smiles etched into their faces.

They talk about work and about Baekhyun’s upcoming travels. They talk about a recipe Kyungsoo’s been testing out at home, about Baekhyun’s parent’s dog Mongryong, who he’s going to visit next weekend. He shows Kyungsoo about fifty pictures on his phone but Kyungsoo doesn’t mind, enjoying Baekhyun’s excitement. Halfway through lunch, conversation turns to stories about their friends, and the whole coincidence that was last night.

“Did you also wake up to a bunch of suggestive texts from Jongdae?” Kyungsoo asks, remembering the ignored messages on his phone.

Baekhyun throws his head back and laughs. “He’s the worst,” he says, but he doesn’t look particularly bothered. “I bet you just ignored him.”

“You didn’t?”

“The best way to beat Jongdae is by playing his own game,” Baekhyun says. “I answered everything in a way that was toeing the line between believable and outrageous and he’s already sent me like five texts demanding if what I’ve said is true or not because he can’t tell.”

Kyungsoo laughs, shaking his head. “Impressive,” he says, and then, feeling strangely bold from the comfortable atmosphere between them, from the way Baekhyun continues looking at him so softly, from the fact that this is a _date_ and he can definitely be a little flirty, when he wants, he adds, “Am I gonna get to hear any of those things you told him? Perhaps make it a reality?”

Baekhyun chokes on air, spluttering in clear surprise at Kyungsoo’s low, suggestive tone. It’s so cute how quickly his face turns pink and he coughs, eyes darting around the room before settling back on Kyungsoo, but only briefly. “I mean,” he says, coughing again when his voice cracks. “Yeah, that would—that could definitely be arranged.”

Kyungsoo grins at him. “I’m looking forward to it,” he says, and picks up his glass of water for a small sip.

“Fuck,” Baekhyun breathes out, slumping against his seat and dissolving Kyungsoo into laughter once again.

They leave the restaurant after nearly two hours, Baekhyun with an arm around Kyungsoo’s shoulders, and Kyungsoo smiling at the ground, feeling sufficiently full from not only the food but the company as well. Baekhyun insists on walking Kyungsoo to his car even though it’s a block away, and chatters the whole time, about how lunch went by too fast, and how he thinks he’d much rather join Kyungsoo at work than go home.

As they approach Kyungsoo’s car, Baekhyun lets out this huge, exaggerated sigh and says, “Well, I guess this is where we say our goodbyes.”

Kyungsoo laughs and pokes Baekhyun in the chest with the tip of his car key. “Don’t make it sound like I’m heading off to war or something,” he says. “I’ll see you again in a few days, we already decided.”

That does effectively perk Baekhyun back up and he nods, his hair falling into his face. And Kyungsoo, now, doesn’t have to push back the urge to reach up and brush his hair away, smiling at the way Baekhyun’s breath hitches in his surprise.

Baekhyun takes Kyungsoo’s hand afterward and squeezes his fingers. In a tone of voice that suggests nonchalance but isn’t quite, he says, “You know, since we’ve established that this is a date and all, I feel like it’s only proper for us to kiss.”

Kyungsoo bites back a grin, but isn’t sure he’s very successful. “Is that so?” he drawls.

“Yup,” Baekhyun says with a serious nod. “Pretty sure it’s in the dating rulebook. A kiss on the first date is not only suggested but mandatory.”

“Hmm,” Kyungsoo hums, giving Baekhyun a slow once over. “You don’t strike me as the kind of person to follow the rules.”

The corner of Baekhyun’s mouth twitches upward in his amusement, but he continues to keep up the facade. “I make exceptions,” he says emphatically, “When they matter.” He pointedly releases Kyungsoo’s hand in favor of resting his hands on Kyungsoo’s hips, spreading immediate warmth through Kyungsoo’s body. Not even the L.A. sun can compare with the heat from Baekhyun’s touch and Kyungsoo lets out a breath he didn't realize he was holding.

“Just kiss me already, Baekhyun,” he says, half a demand, half laughter, “I want you to.”

“Oh, thank god,” Baekhyun says and leans in.

Their first kiss is soft, short, a single press of lips against lips that’s broken by Baekhyun’s laughter until Kyungsoo curls his fingers into the front of Baekhyun’s shirt and drags him back for more. This time it’s better, fuller, deeper. Kyungsoo can feel the heat from Baekhyun’s breath, the smooth glide of his lips, the wet press of his tongue. Baekhyun’s fingers dig into Kyungsoo’s hips, tugging Kyungsoo closer, sliding one hand up his back so he can hold the nape of Kyungsoo’s neck, sending shivers down Kyungsoo’s spine. Kyungsoo gasps, reaches out his own hands, cradling Baekhyun’s face in his palms, his thumb rubbing across Baekhyun’s soft cheek.

When they pull apart this time, it’s slow, reluctant, lips lingering against each other until Kyungsoo laughs and presses his forehead against Baekhyun’s, eyes fluttering shut from the gentle way that Baekhyun squeezes the back of his neck with his fingers. Heat burns through every inch of his body, leaves Kyungsoo feeling alive and happy and sated in a way he hasn’t in a long time.

“Are you sure you’ve gotta go to work?” Baekhyun asks in a breathless voice. “Because I think I have about a hundred more kisses I’d like to give you.”

“Just a hundred?” Kyungsoo teases, blinking back up at him.

“It’s a low estimate, I admit,” Baekhyun says, slipping his hand from the back of Kyungsoo’s neck, letting his fingers brush over the shell of his ear.

“As nice as that sounds,” Kyungsoo sighs, “I really do have to go.”

“Ugh, fine,” Baekhyun grumbles, pouting adorably at Kyungsoo as he wraps his arms back around his waist. “I suppose I’ll survive.”

“You will,” Kyungsoo agrees. “Besides, a little separation is good. Builds up the anticipation for next time.”

Baekhyun laughs at that and plants a wet, smacking kiss to Kyungsoo’s cheek. “Wednesday, right?”

“Wednesday,” Kyungsoo confirms. “Don’t forget.”

“I definitely won’t,” Baekhyun says and it’s so sincere that Kyungsoo pulls him in for one more kiss.

Baekhyun doesn’t seem eager to stop at just one, trying to chase after Kyungsoo for another when Kyungsoo pulls back. It’s cute, and flattering, but Kyungsoo really does have to go, no matter how tempting Baekhyun’s kisses are. He presses the unlock button on his key and his car beeps loudly behind them, startling Baekhyun into relenting, slumping slightly as Kyungsoo reaches for the door. “Have a good day, Baekhyun,” he says. “I’ll see you soon.”

“Not soon enough,” Baekhyun says but smiles all the same, hopping back up to the sidewalk and shoving his hands into the pockets of his jacket.

Kyungsoo gets into his car, starts the engine, and waves at Baekhyun through the passenger window before he pulls out into the street. In the silence of his car, he lets out a deep, soothing breath, calming his rapidly beating heart.

It was a date. A good date. A _really_ good date.

Kyungsoo hasn’t enjoyed a date quite as much as he enjoyed this one, and he thinks that has more to do with Baekhyun than anything else. It’s still shocking to him, how quickly he’s grown attached to Baekhyun, but the more they spend time together, the more they get to know each other, the more Kyungsoo grows to accept that his interest in Baekhyun might be more than simply finding him attractive and funny.

He _likes_ Baekhyun. He thinks he could _really_ like Baekhyun.

He can still feel the press of Baekhyun’s lips against his and it fills him up with warmth and excitement.

He’s already looking forward to their next date.

By the time Kyungsoo makes it to work, he’s in such high spirits that Sehun calls him out on it, poking Kyungsoo in the cheek with a curious expression.

“Can’t a guy just be happy about coming into work?” Kyungsoo deflects as he pulls on his chef uniform and buttons up the front.

“No,” Sehun says and looks rather bewildered when Kyungsoo laughs and pats his head.

When Junmyeon stops by sometime in the evening and Kyungsoo is still smiling around at everyone and everything, Sehun dramatically points to him and says, “Help, I think he’s broken.”

Kyungsoo only laughs and slides a plate up onto the pick-up shelf for Mark to serve.

Later, when he has a short break, Kyungsoo texts Baekhyun about Sehun’s comments, and Baekhyun sends back a bunch of laughing emoji, followed by two short lines.

_ur so cute  
can’t wait to see u again soon ❤_

It’s enough to keep Kyungsoo’s mood up throughout the rest of the day.

❖

“I _knew_ you two would get along,” Jongdae loudly exclaims over the phone the next day as Kyungsoo struggles to get into his apartment without dropping his bag of groceries.

“Yeah, yeah,” he says dispassionately, finally stepping inside and kicking the door shut behind him. “Take the credit, even though you didn’t do anything.”

“I did tell you to go back out and talk to him, didn’t I? When you first met?” Jongdae says. “Imagine if I hadn’t! You would’ve hid in the bathroom forever and missed your flight.”

“I would _not_ have done that,” Kyungsoo grumbles. “Besides, you also told me to drag him into an empty stall for a quick fuck. Imagine if I’d done _that_.”

“If you’d done that, you’d probably have been abducted by aliens or something,” Jongdae laughs and Kyungsoo can’t hide his own amused grin, because he’s right. “If you’d done that, you wouldn’t be telling me how nervous you are about your next date like you’re some awkward teenager either.”

“I never said I was nervous,” Kyungsoo says, setting the bag of groceries onto the counter. He taps at the speakerphone button on the screen of his phone, sets that down too so he can keep talking with Jongdae but also have use of both hands. “I said I was excited. We’re having dinner and going to see a movie. What’s there to be nervous about?”

“I can hear it in your voice, Kyungsoo,” Jongdae drawls with amusement etched in his tone. “You think I can’t tell when you’re nervous?”

Fuck, Kyungsoo thinks as he sets aside the cucumber and lettuce he bought to make a quick salad for dinner. He grabs the chicken and minced beef to throw into the freezer and says, “Okay, maybe I’m a little nervous. It’s just very new, that’s all.”

“Or you’re just hoping to graduate from kissing to something else,” Jongdae says sleazily, and Kyungsoo is pretty sure he’s waggling his brows even though Kyungsoo can’t see him. “You move fast, don’t you?”

“ _No_ ,” Kyungsoo says vehemently and groans when Jongdae cackles because now he’s kind of, maybe, thinking about it. Baekhyun’s lips on his skin, Baekhyun’s pretty hands slipping under his shirt, Baekhyun’s warm body pressed up against his—

“I’m ending our friendship,” Kyungsoo says while Jongdae continues wheezing into the phone. “It’s gone on long enough. Tell Minseok I love him, but I can only ever see him again without you present.”

“You’re all talk,” Jongdae says gleefully. “Don’t worry, Kyungsoo, I know how you really feel.”

“I hate you,” Kyungsoo says.

“I know,” Jongdae says and he sounds proud about it.

Kyungsoo hangs up on him. Ten minutes later, he’s talking to Baekhyun instead as he makes dinner, his phone propped up against a stack of cookbooks so he can occasionally catch Baekhyun’s face through the screen as he rubs moisturizer over his face, having just emerged from a shower. Kyungsoo’s grateful Baekhyun bothered to put on a shirt.

“I can’t even tell what you’re making but I bet it’s better than the ramen I’m about to heat up,” Baekhyun is saying, effectively dragging Kyungsoo’s attention away from the screen and back to what he’s been doing.

He laughs shortly, looking down at the cutting board where he’s sliced up the cucumber. “It’s just a salad,” he says. “Nothing special.” He scoops up the cucumber to throw into his salad bowl along with the lettuce and carrots he’d chopped up earlier. “But it probably is much better for me than the ramen is for you.”

“I’m lazy, sue me,” Baekhyun grumbles. He still has a little dab of cream along his temple that he smooths out when Kyungsoo softly points it out. “Cooking is hard,” he adds after a moment. “You need to come over sometime and cook for me instead.”

For some reason, the thought of actually meeting Baekhyun at his place sends a shiver up Kyungsoo’s spine. “Is that your subtle way of inviting me to your place?” he asks, mostly teasing, mouth curling in amusement as Baekhyun opens his mouth, closes it, opens it again.

“No,” he says after an extended pause. He licks his lips. “Maybe,” he amends, rubs his nose, and huffs. “Yes.” He finally looks at the camera on his phone properly and says, “Why, did it work?”

Kyungsoo won’t tell him he’s already considering what kind of dish to cook for Baekhyun, in Baekhyun’s apartment, in Baekhyun’s kitchen. “I suppose I could be persuaded,” he says instead.

Baekhyun laughs and nods. “Okay, you can give me your list of ingredients and I’ll buy everything before you come and then stay out of the kitchen the entire time.”

“Somehow I don’t really believe that second part,” Kyungsoo chuckles as he pulls out a small bowl from a cupboard and a few items from the fridge to make a vinaigrette for his salad.

“Yeah, okay, you’re right,” Baekhyun says with a sigh, resting his chin in his palm. He looks soft on Kyungsoo’s screen, tapping fingers against a full cheek, his still slightly damp hair messy across his forehead. Kyungsoo is struck with the urge to kiss him again. That’s been happening a lot ever since Sunday and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. When he sees Baekhyun again in two days, he thinks he’ll have to kiss him first before anything else to simply get it out of the way.

“It will be really hard to keep my hands to myself while watching you cook,” Baekhyun continues, pulling Kyungsoo back to the conversation at hand and not his accumulating desires. “But I’ll do my best. For food.”

Kyungsoo snorts, but is endeared by the serious look on Baekhyun’s face anyway. “Let’s get through this week’s date first before we start planning anything more, okay?”

“Saying it like that makes it sound like such a chore,” Baekhyun whines, pouting. “You’re not thinking of flaking on me, are you?”

That idea has never once crossed Kyungsoo’s mind. He sets the bowl and spoon he’s been using aside and picks up his phone properly so Baekhyun can see his face. “Not even once have I considered that,” he says, hoping that Baekhyun can hear the honesty in his voice, and see for himself in his expression that Kyungsoo wants this just as much as him.

And maybe it works; Baekhyun goes all quiet the way Kyungsoo’s learned he does when he’s flustered. It’s ridiculously adorable, watching how Baekhyun’s eyes widen and he licks his lips, clearly struggling to formulate words, fingers musing up his bangs. He’s pretty sure Baekhyun is probably blushing a little, too, even though it’s hard to tell through the screen.

“Oh,” Baekhyun says eventually. “Okay. That’s...good.”

“Why, have you?” Kyungsoo asks, teases, hoping to get a rise out of Baekhyun.

“No!” Baekhyun exclaims quickly, then seems to catch hold of himself, coughing slightly as he mumbles, “Sorry. It’s not that at all.” He laughs, short, a little awkward, and adds, “I don’t know. I guess I’m just a little nervous.”

Kyungsoo is surprised by the sudden honesty, but is also incredibly relieved to know he’s not the only one. Before he can tell Baekhyun as much, Baekhyun blurts out, “Don’t get me wrong! I’m really excited to see you again, but also nervous for some reason, I don’t know, is that weird?”

“No,” Kyungsoo says softly, shaking his head. “It’s not weird at all.”

And he doesn’t need to explain further because Baekhyun seems to understand, his expression smoothing out and a small smile curling across his lips. “This is pretty new still,” Kyungsoo adds, setting his phone back down so he can finish up his dinner. He makes sure Baekhyun can still mostly see him, waving at the screen when Baekhyun does, and then grabs the plate he’d set aside. “I think I mentioned it before, but I haven’t been looking for a relationship and it’s been awhile since I’ve dated anyone.”

“It’s the same for me,” Baekhyun says, running a hand through his hair and cutely blowing the strands out of his face when they fall back. “I can definitely say I wasn’t expecting to be so interested in the hot guy I randomly met at the airport.”

Kyungsoo chuckles, shaking his head, and carefully takes his dinner and his phone to the living room instead to eat. He sets the plate onto the coffee table and holds his phone up so Baekhyun can see him as he speaks. “Well, hopefully I can make it all worth your while,” he says without really thinking about it, his face burning just a little at how flirty it comes across.

The way Baekhyun grins widely at him in response makes it bearable. The way he softly says, “You already have,” makes it even better.

Still, Kyungsoo scrunches up his face, chuckling in embarrassment as Baekhyun laughs.

“Too much?” Baekhyun asks.

“A little,” Kyungsoo admits.

Baekhyun cackles, clearly pleased. He rests his chin atop his hand and gazes at the camera so intently that Kyungsoo has to set his phone aside for a moment to focus on eating instead. “You’re so cute,” Baekhyun says, like he knows what Kyungsoo’s doing, and before Kyungsoo has a chance to refute him, he says, “Anyway I’ll let you eat your dinner in peace. I’ve got a proposal to write up before I go to bed.”

Kyungsoo swallows the mouthful of salad he’d taken and says, “Make sure you eat, too.”

“I will,” Baekhyun says and smiles. “Goodnight, Kyungsoo. See you soon.”

He makes a kissy face at the screen as Kyungsoo says his goodbyes and ends the call, tossing his phone to the side of the couch. He sighs, leaning back and propping his feet up onto the coffee table, a smile stretching across his lips. It’s funny, he thinks, how things turn out. A few weeks ago, Kyungsoo wasn’t thinking about dating anyone, mostly content with his single lifestyle and occasional Tinder hookups.

Now, he’s starting to think he can’t imagine not knowing Baekhyun at all.

Baekhyun who has carved out a space for himself in Kyungsoo’s quiet life and seems to have every intention to stick around for awhile. And the scariest part—or, perhaps just the most surprising—is that Kyungsoo wants him to stick around. He wants Baekhyun in his life, for as long as Baekhyun wants him.

Everything between them is still so new, but Kyungsoo’s ready to see where they will go from here.

-

Kyungsoo’s been to the Melrose rooftop theater only once before, years ago. Chanyeol had dragged him along to see a showing of Psycho and while Kyungsoo had enjoyed the experience, he found everything a bit too overpriced to do it again.

Tonight, Baekhyun smoothly mentions he already bought tickets online and leads Kyungsoo to a pair of comfy chairs in the middle of the roof. It’s a cool night but Baekhyun’s arm around Kyungsoo’s shoulders is heavy and warm, and the way he laughs when Kyungsoo says, “We could’ve just gone to an AMC or something,” spreads heat through Kyungsoo’s body.

“No way,” Baekhyun protests, stretching his legs out in front of him. “This is way more romantic.”

“Romantic, huh,” Kyungsoo repeats, amused but also a little flustered. “Is that what you’re going for here?”

“Absolutely,” Baekhyun says. “I’m trying to sweep you off your feet.”

Kyungsoo bites his lower lip to keep from blurting out that Baekhyun’s more or less already accomplished that. He laughs instead and shakes his head. “What’re we even watching then?” he says, glancing up at the screen, then around the rooftop. He thinks there was a poster at the entrance but he’d been too preoccupied with Baekhyun holding his hand as he pulled out the tickets to notice what movie had been displayed.

“It’s a surprise,” Baekhyun beams, and he pats Kyungsoo’s thigh when Kyungsoo fixes him with a weak glare. “It’s a classic. You’ll love it.”

Kyungsoo nudges his glasses up his nose and squints at him. Baekhyun continues to smile prettily and squeezes his thigh, which is an unfortunately effective distraction. “Fine,” he says after a long moment. “I suppose I can trust you.”

“Good,” Baekhyun says with a laugh, “because you don’t really have a choice.”

“I mean, I could just get up and walk out right now,” Kyungsoo says and finds himself laughing too at the panicked, worried look that crosses Baekhyun’s face.

“Don’t do that,” he whines, sliding his hand from Kyungsoo’s thigh to grab his hand instead. “Haven’t I been a good date so far? We had a nice dinner and everything!”

Kyungsoo hums, taps a finger to his chin like he’s considering. From the corner of his eye, he catches sight of the bar, and says, “Buy me a drink and maybe I’ll stay.”

“Done,” Baekhyun says, straightening up immediately, nodding with seriousness like Kyungsoo isn’t simply teasing.

It’s really cute, how easily he plays along, how easily Kyungsoo plays along with him. He likes this, the casual banter, the back and forth, knowing that Baekhyun understands Kyungsoo’s sense of humor and doesn’t find him too serious or cold. He reaches a hand out to the back of Baekhyun’s neck, fingers brushing the short hairs there and feeling Baekhyun’s slight shiver of surprise. He draws Baekhyun in for a short kiss, not even the first that they’ve shared tonight, and pulls back soon after, laughing when Baekhyun chases him for more.

“Get me a beer?” he says, and Baekhyun’s exhale is warm against Kyungsoo’s mouth.

“As you wish,” he says as he stands, squeezing Kyungsoo’s hand that he’s still holding. “Be right back.”

Kyungsoo watches him walk down the short aisle toward the bar where a few other attendees are waiting to order. The rooftop is moderately packed, seats filled here and there around where Kyungsoo sits. He licks his lips like he can still taste Baekhyun on them, and sinks back in his seat, willing his heart to stop racing. It’s ridiculous how quickly Baekhyun can make him feel so flustered and anxious all at once.

He’d been right, though. It has been a good date so far. They had dinner at a Japanese place Kyungsoo had recommended, where the dishes left Kyungsoo wanting to plan a whole new menu for his own restaurant. They talked about work and about the Korean drama Kyungsoo’s been watching recently and somehow even about their families. Kyungsoo learned that Baekhyun also has an older brother and that he’s an uncle to two adorable kids who he shows off with enthusiasm on his phone, flipping through photos with fondness in his eyes.

It was comfortable, easy, fun. Baekhyun looked ridiculously handsome in his dark jeans and slightly oversized cream sweater with just enough of a V-neck that it showed off the pale skin of his neck and the thin, gold necklace he’d been wearing. Even now, as Kyungsoo catches Baekhyun returning with a beer bottle in each hand, he looks so good, with his hair slightly unkempt from the wind and the pretty smile that stretches across his lips.

Kyungsoo wants to kiss him again but holds that back as Baekhyun hands him a bottle and settles into his own seat to Kyungsoo’s right. “Thanks,” he says and Baekhyun waves it off like it’s nothing.

“It should be starting soon,” Baekhyun says, glancing at his watch. He wriggles in his seat, trying to get comfortable, but Kyungsoo’s noticed that Baekhyun isn’t very good at sitting still in general. He wonders how he’ll get through this movie. “I’m excited,” he adds, flashing Kyungsoo a wide grin.

“I would be too, if I knew what movie we were seeing,” Kyungsoo drawls, baiting, but Baekhyun just cackles and doesn’t bite.

“Patience, babe,” he says instead, patting Kyungsoo’s knee, and that, combined with the sudden endearment, has Kyungsoo flushing deeply.

He drags his eyes away from Baekhyun’s warm gaze and takes a sip from his beer. He is curious about the movie tonight, but it’s not that important; he’s simply glad to be here with Baekhyun at all. Kyungsoo enjoys watching movies and considers himself to be a bit of a film buff, but he doesn’t want to make Baekhyun worried about his choice by telling him that now. Instead he takes another drink from his bottle, stretches his legs out more comfortably, and asks, “What’s your favorite movie?”

“Iron Man,” says Baekhyun immediately and so seriously, Kyungsoo isn’t sure if he’s joking or not.

“Really?” he says with a laugh.

Baekhyun grins and shrugs. “I do like the movie and I think Iron Man is cool. I don’t know though,” he says. “Picking just _one_ favorite movie? It’s too hard.”

“Mine is probably Kamome Diner,” says Kyungsoo easily and chuckles at the way Baekhyun gapes at him. “You’re right though, it is hard to choose just one.”

“I’ve never seen that one,” Baekhyun says.

Kyungsoo smiles and lightly nudges him with an elbow. “Let’s watch it together sometime,” he says and smiles wider as Baekhyun beams.

“I’m holding you to that,” he says, so Kyungsoo knocks the top of his beer bottle against the neck of Baekhyun’s in promise. They both laugh and take a drink and finally settle in for the movie as the screen flickers to life and the lights around the rooftop dim.

Baekhyun scoots in closer to Kyungsoo’s side, leaves his hand on Kyungsoo’s knee where it’s been resting, and Kyungsoo presses his shoulder against Baekhyun’s, enjoys the heat of his touch. The movie turns out to be The Princess Bride, which has Kyungsoo laughing and murmuring, “I love this one,” into Baekhyun’s ear.

“Who doesn’t?” Baekhyun whispers back, but even through the darkness, he looks relieved. Kyungsoo switches his beer to his left hand, so he can let his right gently squeeze the back of Baekhyun’s neck. Baekhyun relaxes into it and flashes him a smile before they both turn their attention back to the movie.

Kyungsoo hasn’t seen The Princess Bride in awhile, but Baekhyun was right when he called it a classic. He leans back, takes another drink from his beer, and barely ten minutes into the movie, Baekhyun is quoting lines under his breath beside him. It’s cute, but distracting. Kyungsoo nudges him lightly and Baekhyun shuts up, if only for a few minutes before he’s snickering, learning in to whisper, “What would you do if I changed my name to Humperdinck?”

“Pretty sure I’d no longer be attracted to you,” Kyungsoo says, stifling his own amused laughter. Baekhyun’s eyes gleam back at him and he shivers at the way he rubs his hand along the length of Kyungsoo’s thigh.

“You’re attracted to me?” he whispers and Kyungsoo squeezes the back of his neck again.

“As if you don’t know,” he returns smoothly and is surprised when Baekhyun answers by planting a kiss to Kyungsoo’s cheek.

“It’s nice to hear it though,” he says after, grinning, and Kyungsoo shoves him away lightly.

“Watch the movie,” he says in a low voice, pointing toward the screen, and waits until Baekhyun turns his attention to the front before he does the same, his chest warm from the kiss, from Baekhyun’s comments, from his hand still on his thigh.

That hand turns out to be the most distracting of all. Kyungsoo doesn't think Baekhyun’s even aware of what he’s doing, sliding his palm up and down, gently squeezing Kyungsoo’s leg, and tapping his fingers along the inner part of his thigh. At one point, he even digs his fingers into the ripped hole of the jeans at Kyungsoo’s knee, rubbing them against the bare skin. It takes all of Kyungsoo’s concentration to pay attention to Buttercup and Westley making it through the Fire Swamp on the screen and not the way Baekhyun’s touch sets a flame in his own body, a tiny spark of arousal he isn’t expecting.

Kyungsoo takes a much-needed drink from his beer and slowly draws his right arm back from where it’s still resting behind Baekhyun’s neck so he can pull Baekhyun’s hand off his leg. He laces their fingers together easily and catches the way Baekhyun glances down from the screen to their joined hands, the corner of his lips curving upward. He doesn’t say anything, doesn’t even look at Kyungsoo, turning his attention back to the screen, but he does pull Kyungsoo’s hand into his lap and strokes his knuckles with his thumb.

Kyungsoo lets out a steadying breath. Hand-holding is much more bearable than Baekhyun’s hand squeezing his thigh. Comfort instead of arousal, even though Kyungsoo isn’t sure that feeling is going to cease any time soon.

He takes another drink and focuses on the movie, and it’s much easier now. The rest of the movie passes by enjoyably, Baekhyun and Kyungsoo laughing and whispering to each other, reciting Inigo’s famous line together along with him on the screen. Baekhyun doesn’t let go of Kyungsoo’s hand the whole time.

After the movie, Baekhyun drives Kyungsoo home. They spend the ride chatting endlessly about the film, how it’d be a shame if Fox really did try to do a remake. When Kyungsoo comments about how hot Cary Elwes is, Baekhyun huffs and says, “Do you think I could dress up as the Dread Pirates Roberts for Halloween?”

Kyungsoo laughs and says, “I think most people will mistake you for Zorro.”

“Well, I’d dye my hair blond, of course,” Baekhyun says and Kyungsoo pauses at that, looks over at Baekhyun properly, at the way the streetlights they pass cast a pretty glow over his face.

Instinctively, he reaches out to brush his fingers lightly through Baekhyun’s dark hair. “You’d look good blond,” he says, dropping his hand.

Baekhyun turns his head just enough to meet Kyungsoo’s gaze, dark and curious. “Yeah?” he says, and Kyungsoo can only nod, feeling strangely warm under the collar of his shirt. Before he can say anything, change the topic, drag his eyes away from the intensity of Baekhyun’s look, Baekhyun grins and say, “You’d make a cute Buttercup.”

It breaks the spell. Kyungsoo punches Baekhyun in the arm and Baekhyun cackles delightedly, but even he can’t help but crack a smile, shaking his head. He wants to kiss the bright smile off of Baekhyun’s face, but settles for sinking back into his seat and watching as they get closer to his apartment. Baekhyun manages to nab a recently-vacated parking spot just down the street from Kyungsoo’s building, and to Kyungsoo’s surprise, he cuts the engine once he’s parked.

“Mind if I walk you up to your door?” Baekhyun asks, looking over at Kyungsoo, one hand still on his keys in the ignition. He sounds both sincere and hopeful, as if there’s any chance Kyungsoo would say no.

“Not at all,” he says, and steps out of the car, Baekhyun following after. Baekhyun wraps an arm around Kyungsoo’s waist as they head down the sidewalk, and he sticks close as Kyungsoo unlocks the main door and as they wait for the elevator.

Kyungsoo’s heart is beating quickly now, wondering if he should invite Baekhyun in, wondering if Baekhyun expects him to, if date number two is too soon to shove Baekhyun up against the mirrored elevator walls to kiss him and touch him like he’s been aching to all night.

He doesn’t do any of that, though, just lets Baekhyun rub tiny circles into his hip with his fingers the whole ride up, driving him just as crazy as he did back at the theater. Only worse, because this time Kyungsoo can do something about it—if he wants. They’re at his door soon enough and Baekhyun doesn’t ask to come in at all, just watches as Kyungsoo fishes out the correct key. And maybe he’s just being a good date, wanting to walk Kyungsoo to his door, maybe kiss him goodnight—and god, Kyungsoo wants that, but he also wants so much more.

He licks his lips, unlocks the door, and turns to look at Baekhyun over his shoulder. “Want to come in for a sec?” he asks, hoping Baekhyun understands.

And he does, it’s clear that he does in the way his lips twist into a smirk. He nods.

The second they’re inside, and the door has shut behind them, Baekhyun is the one shoving Kyungsoo up against it, hands cradling the sides of his face as he kisses him without warning—but Kyungsoo didn’t need one anyway. He’d been hoping for it, preparing for it himself—if Baekhyun hadn’t done it, he would have.

Instead he lets out a soft moan against Baekhyun’s lips, doesn’t even have the time to feel embarrassed by it because Baekhyun is kissing harder and deeper, hands sliding down from Kyungsoo’s face to his waist, holding him tight as Kyungsoo’s own hands thread through Baekhyun’s hair.

“Fuck,” Baekhyun groans, gasping aginst his mouth, “I’ve been wanting to do this for hours.”

Kyungsoo lets out a breathless laugh. “Me, too,” he says. “You were driving me insane with all the touching at the theater. Did you do that on purpose?”

Baekhyun hums, considering, presses his lips just under Kyungsoo’s lips, then at the corner of his mouth. “Maybe,” he says softly. “I don’t really remember. You touched my neck and I think I went straight to horny.”

It makes Kyungsoo laugh, and conversation ceases as their mouths find each other again, moving together with desperate ease, like this isn’t only their second date, like they haven’t kissed only a couple of times before this. Maybe it’s just the building of the past couple of weeks of getting to know each other, of feelings developing, and desires heightening. Kyungsoo’s always been attracted to Baekhyun, and he knows Baekhyun’s been the same, so he’s not entirely surprised that they’ve come to this so soon. It feels right, anyway, no matter where it might lead right now.

“Not to mention,” Baekhyun says, a couple of moments later, sliding his hands further down to Kyungsoo’s ass. “You have no idea how good your ass looks in these jeans, do you?” He squeezes pointedly, using his hold to drag Kyungsoo even closer until their bodies are flush together and Kyungsoo can feel his arousal rubbing up against Baekhyun’s through the barrier of their clothes.

“Fuck,” Kyungsoo hisses, tugging roughly at Baekhyun’s hair, dragging his lips, his teeth, down the length of Baekhyun’s pretty neck before finding his mouth again.

They kiss for what feels like hours, but must only be a handful of minutes, gasping and grinding and groaning against Kyungsoo’s front door. Eventually the rush of the moment fades away and takes all their desperation with it, leaving them panting languidly against each other’s lips, hands settling, arousal simmering under their skin instead of blazing hot on the surface.

Still, Kyungsoo is surprised when Baekhyun murmurs, “Fuck, maybe—maybe I should go.”

“You don’t—You don’t have to,” Kyungsoo says, sliding his hands from Baekhyun’s hair long enough to adjust his glasses where they’ve come askew on his nose, then winds his hands around Baekhyun’s back instead, holding him in place.

Baekhyun lets out a harsh breath. “God, you shouldn’t say that or I’ll get ideas.”

“Well,” Kyungsoo says, licking his lips slowly as he tries to find the right words through the haze of arousal, “I think you’d be getting the _right_ idea.”

There’s a pause where Baekhyun just stares at him. Then, he blurts out, “Are you—sure? Because I’m not—Honestly, I didn’t even come up here with the intention—”

“But you want to, right?” Kyungsoo interjects, and figuring he might as well be clear about it, adds, “You want to have sex. With me.”

“Fuck,” Baekhyun laughs, incredulous, “I’m pretty sure I’ve made that clear since we met.”

Kyungsoo laughs, too. “Well, then,” he says, sliding his hands around to the front of Baekhyun’s waist, slowly moving up his chest. “If you don’t have anywhere else to be…”

“Jesus,” Baekhyun groans, pulling at Kyungsoo’s hips, “Come here.”

They kiss again and it’s somehow even more frantic than it was earlier, hands tugging at clothing without really managing to take anything off, their breath hot against each other’s mouths, groaning loudly into the silence of Kyungsoo’s apartment.

Kyungsoo kisses down Baekhyun’s neck and his arousal only spikes when he latches his mouth to Baekhyun’s throat to suck hard and Baekhyun lets out a needy moan. A hand clutches tightly at Kyungsoo’s hair and drags him back up until he’s staring into Baekhyun’s deep, dark, intense eyes for what feels like an eternity before Baekhyun kisses him again, teeth nipping at Kyungsoo’s lower lip along the way. Kyungsoo makes a pleased sort of sound in the back of his throat and suddenly they’re breaking apart again, gasping, trembling with want.

“Bedroom,” Kyungsoo manages to say and Baekhyun simply nods.

They’re out of their shoes and down the hall in record time, Kyungsoo already halfway through unbuttoning his shirt by the time he kicks open his bedroom door. Baekhyun’s hands find his hips again from behind, and he kisses the back of Kyungsoo’s neck so softly it sends a little shiver up Kyungsoo’s spine. Kyungsoo twists around to kiss Baekhyun properly again and Baekhyun’s hands nudge Kyungsoo’s away from his shirt to undo the buttons for him. Kyungsoo struggles to pull up Baekhyun’s sweater at the same time as they shuffle further into the room toward the bed.

Their kisses dissolve into laughter as they struggle to remove clothes and kiss at the same time. Baekhyun mutters, “Wait, wait, fuck,” against Kyungsoo’s lips as he finally peels open Kyungsoo’s shirt and pushes it down his shoulders. Once it falls to the ground, he raises his arms above his head with a cheeky grin and expectant lift of his brow, waiting for Kyungsoo to drag his sweater off. So Kyungsoo does, throwing it somewhere to the side afterward as Baekhyun’s hands drop to the front of Kyungsoo’s pants.

“Can I?” he asks, even as he rubs his thumb across the exposed skin of Kyungsoo’s stomach, just above the waistband.

“Yes,” Kyungsoo breathes out, and Baekhyun wastes no time to comply. It gives Kyungsoo a moment to simply look at him, appreciate him, his broad shoulders and sharp lines of his collarbones in contrast to the softness of his stomach. He visibly shudders when Kyungsoo reaches out to touch him, flattening his palm across Baekhyun’s gentle abs and around his side, laughing when Baekhyun curses under his breath.

He tugs roughly at Kyungsoo’s pants, down his hips. Kyungsoo helps, and once his jeans have joined the rest of his clothes on the floor, he looks up at Baekhyun and says, “Take yours off, too.”

Baekhyun makes a show out of it. A very exaggerated, cheesy kind of striptease, swaying his hips from side to side as he slowly pops the button and just as slowly drags the zipper down. Kyungsoo is laughing, shaking his head as he walks over to the adjacent bathroom instead.

“Hey, I’m trying to seduce you!” Baekhyun yells after him, but then shuts up quickly when Kyungsoo returns with lube and condoms.

“Yes,” Kyungsoo drawls. “And you’re doing a great job.”

Baekhyun laughs, but it comes out kind of choked, his gaze still on the items in Kyungsoo’s hands. It gives Kyungsoo pause, looking down at them too, then up at Baekhyun.

“Is this not what you wanted?” Kyungsoo asks, slowly setting them down onto the nightstand beside his bed.

Baekhyun seems to jerk back to reality, shaking his head as he finally strips out of his jeans. He climbs up onto the bed and reaches for Kyungsoo, taking his wrist and tugging him up too. “No, sorry,” he says. “I do want this, obviously. I think I just had a moment of—are we taking this too fast?”

It’s a good question. Kyungsoo lets out a soft breath as he considers, but it’s the way Baekhyun is staring at him now, worry etched into his brows, that makes him smile. He reaches out to rub his thumb across Baekhyun’s forehead and watches the way Baekhyun’s unease transforms into surprise as Kyungsoo pushes him down against the sheets and swings a leg over into his lap.

“I don’t think it’s too fast,” Kyungsoo answers finally.

“This is only our second date, you know,” Baekhyun points out which only makes Kyungsoo laugh.

“True,” Kyungsoo agrees. “But you know, if we’d met on Tinder normally, I think we would’ve been in this position on the first date, so...does it really make much of a difference?”

Baekhyun licks his lips and surprises Kyungsoo when he says, “Yes, it does.” He takes a deep breath and continues, “The difference is that I really like you, Kyungsoo, and I don’t want this to be a typical Tinder hookup.”

“Oh,” Kyungsoo says, somewhat stunned by the sudden admission. The honesty in Baekhyun’s voice is as clear as it is in the deep brown of his eyes and Kyungsoo believes him, that this is what he wants.

“I don’t want that either,” he says. “This isn’t a one time thing for me.”

“Are you—Really?”

“Yes, really,” Kyungsoo insists, curious about the sudden hesitancy in Baekhyun’s demeanor, but deciding that for now it’s best to reassure him, leaning in close to kiss him gently. “If all I wanted from you was sex, why would I have bothered to ask you the other day if we were on a date?” he asks when he pulls back, laughing softly at the rather stumped expression on Baekhyun’s face.

“I—Well—Shit,” Baekhyun says, and Kyungsoo laughs even more, cupping Baekhyun’s face in his hands to kiss him once again. “I’m sorry,” he murmurs between each press of their lips. “I just—I want us to be on the same page, you know? I don’t want us to have any regrets for jumping in too soon.”

“If you want to stop here, we can stop,” Kyungsoo says sincerely. As much as he wants to devour Baekhyun right now, he’s glad that they stopped to discuss this. He wants them to be on the same page too, and Baekhyun’s comfort is more important than Kyungsoo’s libido.

“No,” Baekhyun says firmly, squeezing Kyungsoo’s ass in his hands as if to get the point across. “No, I want this.”

“Then I do, too,” Kyungsoo says and finds Baekhyun’s lips once again.

Baekhyun groans against his mouth and drags Kyungsoo even closer with the hands still on his ass, and suddenly Kyungsoo is reminded of their position, Baekhyun’s half-hard cock bumping against his own. He groans, too, arousal quickly returning to the forefront of his mind, his body practically vibrating with want.

“Fuck,” Baekhyun says when they break apart just long enough to catch their breaths, “Fuck—how—how do you want to do this?”

Kyungsoo looks down at him, at Baekhyun’s tousled black hair against the white of his pillows, at Baekhyun’s warm, eager eyes staring back at him, at Baekhyun’s pretty, pink lips—

“If you blow me, you can fuck me,” he says, breathless, hopeful.

Baekhyun blinks at him for a moment, then bursts out laughing, tipping his head back a little, elongating his neck, where Kyungsoo can already see signs of the mark he’d left earlier forming against Baekhyun’s pale skin. “That just sounds like you want me to do all the work,” Baekhyun says, his eyes sparkling as he meets Kyungsoo’s gaze again.

“I’ll even give you a score out of ten,” Kyungsoo returns easily, only to suddenly have the wind knocked out of him as Baekhyun rolls them over in bed, flattening Kyungsoo against the sheets and grinning down at him. Kyungsoo’s cock grows harder at the unexpected display of strength and the smugness in Baekhyun’s expression.

“You’re on,” Baekhyun says as he leans close to kiss Kyungsoo again, just as he trails a hand down Kyungsoo’s chest and doesn’t stop until he’s pressing his palm over Kyungsoo’s erection, through his underwear.

Kyungsoo makes a low noise into the kiss, part surprise, part pleasure, instinctively arching up into the touch for more. Baekhyun lets out a breathless laugh as he breaks their kiss and instead just watches as he rubs his palm across Kyungsoo’s cock a few times more.

Kyungsoo’s mind goes a little fuzzy, all the arousal he’s built up over the course of the night—over the past few weeks of simply knowing Baekhyun—making it hard to focus on anything but how good Baekhyun’s hand feels on his cock. Baekhyun kisses his lips again, then along his jaw, dips under his chin to kiss his neck, his Adam’s Apple, all while continuing to slide his hand over and over Kyungsoo’s clothed erection.

“Fuck,” Kyungsoo finally makes to say, like his brain has only just remembered he has the capability of speech. “Fuck, get on with it already.”

That only makes Baekhyun laugh, his breath hot against his clavicle, following it up with a pointed scrape of his teeth over the bone. Kyungsoo clutches at the sheets, then reaches for Baekhyun’s hair instead, tugging harshly until it’s Baekhyun who moans.

Baekhyun looks up at him, eyes dark but mischievous. He presses his lips to Kyungsoo’s chest, and then again, a few inches down. He continues until his mouth reaches the elastic of Kyungsoo’s boxer briefs, and then slowly curls his fingers into the band. Kyungsoo watches with bated breath as Baekhyun tugs his underwear off, all the way down his thighs until Kyungsoo kicks it off his ankles. He drops his head back against the pillows when Baekhyun gets his hand back onto him, fingers now curling around the base to stroke smoothly up to the tip.

“If you’re gonna give me a score,” Baekhyun says, and his breath tickles Kyungsoo’s cock as much as it seems to make his arousal worse. “Then you better watch.”

And that’s all the warning he gets before Baekhyun is taking his cock into his mouth, the warm, wet heat a shocking pleasure that runs through Kyungsoo’s entire body. He curses again, a drawn out, “ _Fuck_ ,” from deep in his chest, and he tightens his grip in Baekhyun’s hair but doesn’t pull. Just holds onto him like he needs something to ground him, because Baekhyun is good—really good.

He sucks down to the base, then back up easily, slides his hand along with him. He swirls his tongue around the head, then takes Kyungsoo’s cock back into his mouth. His free hand grips Kyungsoo’s hip, holds him down against the bed so he can’t buck up. He has all the control and Kyungsoo is putty in his hands—and his mouth.

He groans when Baekhyun pulls off entirely, stroking him purposefully again while Baekhyun lowers his mouth to a space near Kyungsoo’s navel and bites down against the skin. Kyungsoo’s cock jerks in Baekhyun’s hand, a mix of pleasure and pain and Baekhyun laughs hotly against his stomach, runs the flat of his tongue over the spot. Baekhyun works a path back up Kyungsoo’s chest and finds his mouth again. Kyungsoo welcomes him eagerly, releasing his hold in Baekhyun’s hair to wrap his arms around Baekhyun’s back, dragging him close until their bodies are as pressed together as possible.

“Where did you—fuck—put the lube?” Baekhyun gasps in between their kisses, giving Kyungsoo’s cock one last stroke before he pulls away completely.

“Over here,” Kyungsoo says, blindly throwing his arm out toward the night stand to his right but barely reaching the edge.

“I got it,” Baekhyun says, and he rolls off of Kyungsoo to retrieve the lube, leaving Kyungsoo feeling suddenly cold and exposed, cock lying hard against his stomach.

When he looks over though, he can see Baekhyun’s own arousal clearly tenting the front of his underwear he’s still wearing and feels a little less embarrassed. Baekhyun’s hair is messy from Kyungsoo’s hands and his lips look even more pink than usual, from having Kyungsoo’s cock in his mouth. Just the thought is enough to have Kyungsoo reach down and stroke himself, alleviate some of the pressure, careful not to come too soon.

He realizes he’s still wearing his glasses too and pulls them off for the sake of convenience, asks Baekhyun to set them onto the night stand. Baekhyun does and crawls back over to him, leans down to kiss Kyungsoo gently on the mouth just once before he draws back.

“You really are super good-looking, even without your glasses,” Baekhyun says and the sudden proclamation has Kyungsoo jerking back with a laugh. “Do you not like wearing contacts?”

“They’re troublesome,” Kyungsoo says. “I had them for awhile when I was younger, but eventually decided glasses took way less effort.”

“Driven by laziness,” Baekhyun chuckles softly. “I like that in a man.”

Kyungsoo snorts. “I guess we’re a good match then.”

“Mm, guess so,” Baekhyun says, giving Kyungsoo another soft kiss. Kyungsoo chases after him for another, and another, until Baekhyun is groaning and rubbing his cock against Kyungsoo’s hip.

Kyungsoo thinks that they could both come just like this, so wound up and desperate already, but he knows it’s not what he wants. He pulls back just enough to mutter, “Baekhyun—lube—come on already—” and Baekhyun huffs out a laugh against his cheek.

“Yeah, yeah, give me a sec—fuck,” Baekhyun hisses when Kyungsoo reaches down a hand to slide into Baekhyun’s boxers and wrap around his cock. His shoulders tremble and he nearly loses his balance, mouth going slack in surprise and pleasure as Kyungsoo strokes him. “Fuck—that feels—” he moans as he shakily grabs the lube that’s fallen to the side of the bed. His eyelashes flutter prettily against his flushed cheeks as Kyungsoo rubs his thumb across the tip. “You’re gonna—fuck—have to cut that out if you, god, want me to fuck you.”

Kyungsoo pulls his hand out, smirking up at Baekhyun. “Alright then,” he says and Baekhyun narrows his eyes at him for a moment before he surges back down for another kiss, rough and deep and overwhelming.

It’s like they’ve reached the end of their rope, hanging onto the precipice of arousal by a thread. Baekhyun fingers Kyungsoo open carefully but determinedly, whispering how he would like to take his time but doesn’t think he can hold out any longer. And Kyungsoo is the same, fingers back in Baekhyun’s hair as he works, keeping his mouth close to kiss him and distract himself from the pleasure burning in his veins, from how deep Baekhyun’s long, pretty fingers reach inside of him.

He’s good at this too, Kyungsoo thinks deliriously, curling his fingers just right, teasing Kyungsoo to the edge and then pulling him right back. Their kisses turn more and more sloppy, more breathless gasps against each other’s lips than anything else until Baekhyun slowly trails his mouth back down Kyungsoo’s neck. He runs his tongue over a nipple, drawing out a shocked moan, and then does the same to the other.

Kyungsoo groans, “Fuck,” and bucks his hips up into Baekhyun’s hand. “I’m good—fuck—you can—”

“Are you sure?” Baekhyun asks as he teases him with the stretch of adding a fourth finger.

“Yes,” Kyungsoo grits out. “Don’t make me say it twice.”

Baekhyun laughs and withdraws his fingers slowly, leaving Kyungsoo feeling bereft and ready for what’s to come next. “You’re the boss,” he says with a rather salacious grin. He leans over to grab the condom from the nightstand and struggles to tear it open with his lubed fingers. Kyungsoo’s mouth twists into an amused smile as he thrusts his hand out to take it instead.

“Get rid of this,” Kyungsoo adds, snapping the elastic of Baekhyun’s underwear and Baekhyun looks down at himself, seemingly only just remembering that he’s still partially dressed.

He does as told, kicking his underwear over the side of the bed, and leaving him in nothing but the single gold chain hanging from his neck. The moment Baekhyun comes close enough again, Kyungsoo takes Baekhyun’s cock in his hand and strokes Baekhyun from the head to the base.

“ _Fuck_ ,” Baekhyun almost shouts, grabbing Kyungsoo’s shoulders for support. Kyungsoo doesn’t tease him though, waits until Baekhyun’s caught his breath and then rolls the condom on for him. “I don’t know why,” Baekhyun says, voice somewhat strangled, “but that’s really hot.”

Kyungsoo laughs, and flops back down against the sheets. “Okay,” he says. “Now fuck me.”

“You really are bossy,” Baekhyun comments, settling in-between Kyungsoo’s legs, sliding his hands up from Kyungsoo’s knees to his hips and back again. “I wasn’t expecting that.”

“You’re much more composed,” Kyungsoo returns. “Wasn’t expecting that.”

Baekhyun flashes him a grin as he nudges the tip of his cock against Kyungsoo’s entrance. “Don’t worry,” he says. “That’s not gonna last much longer.”

Honestly, Kyungsoo feels the same. He meets Baekhyun’s eyes and Baekhyun seems to be waiting for his go-ahead before he moves, so Kyungsoo licks his lips and nods, and that’s all it takes. Baekhyun pushes his cock inside, slow, steady, careful, until he’s as deep as he can go. All the air seems to have left Kyungsoo’s lungs in the form of deep, pleasured moan, hands clutching at Baekhyun’s forearms, nails digging into his skin, as Baekhyun slowly, steadily, carefully pulls back.

Then he thrusts forward again and they both moan, Baekhyun’s sounding almost pained as he builds up a comfortable rhythm. “Fuck,” he says, his hands settling at Kyungsoo’s waist tightly, “Fuck, you feel—fuck—amazing.”

“Keep going,” Kyungsoo mutters, basking in the stretch of Baekhyun’s cock, the heat of Baekhyun inside him. It’s been months since he last had sex and this feels so fucking good Kyungsoo doesn’t think he’s going to last very long at all. He lifts a leg to wrap around Baekhyun’s hip, lets Baekhyun push the other down toward his chest, and throws his head back with his throaty moan as Baekhyun’s cock sinks even deeper.

“God,” Baekhyun breathes out, as Kyungsoo blinks through the haze of his pleasure and tips his head back down to look into Baekhyun’s face. “You’re so hot.”

He huffs out a laugh because it’s Baekhyun who’s hot, with sweaty bangs clinging to his forehead, a red flush down his neck to his broad chest. He’s holding onto Kyungsoo’s waist and thrusting his hips so smoothly it’s like he’s barely winded at all, and Kyungsoo’s arousal only seems to grow more the longer he looks. He releases his grip on Baekhyun’s arms to instead cup his face in his hands, pulling him down until he can kiss him, harshly, deeply, desperately. He vaguely remembers what Baekhyun had said earlier when they’d arrived home and slides his one hand around to the back of Baekhyun’s neck, over the cool metal of his necklace, and squeezes his nape.

Baekhyun’s rhythm falters as he slams his cock into Kyungsoo roughly, groaning loudly into Kyungsoo’s mouth. Kyungsoo almost thinks he’s going to come, but instead Baekhyun pulls his cock out entirely, shocking a loud gasp from Kyungsoo’s lungs. “Fuck, sorry, that was just—” Baekhyun says as he struggles to his catch his breath while rubbing his hands along Kyungsoo’s sides, comforting, warming.

“Too much?” Kyungsoo murmurs with a soft laugh.

“A little,” Baekhyun responds, his lips curling up at one corner, and it’s such a familiar exchange between them it helps anchor them together, clear the frantic haze from their minds, focus on each other. Baekhyun leans down to kiss Kyungsoo slowly, softly, easily, over and over again, until they have to stop because they’re smiling more than they are actually kissing.

Kyungsoo brushes Baekhyun’s hair out from his face gently, trails his fingers along his cheek, rubs his thumb across the little mole there, then leans up to kiss it, too. Baekhyun lets out a hitched breath and then sighs indulgently, eyelashes fluttering as he seems to melt into the small kisses Kyungsoo continues to leave across his face. His chest feels impossibly hot, from his arousal, but also from something else, something deeper. His affection for Baekhyun, maybe. How comfortable he feels here, with Baekhyun pressed against him. How much he wants this.

“You okay?” Kyungsoo asks gently after a couple more moments pass by like this.

Baekhyun hums and nods, presses his lips to Kyungsoo’s cheek before he pulls back. He looks down at him, squeezing Kyungsoo’s thigh, and says, “Mind turning over for me?”

Kyungsoo squints at him, just long enough that Baekhyun’s face turns a little pink, and then he laughs and complies, getting up onto his hands and knees. Baekhyun’s hands are on his ass almost instantly and he laughs even harder.

“Shut up,” Baekhyun says. “I’m trying to appreciate your body here.”

“I don’t need it,” Kyungsoo says, grinning at Baekhyun over his shoulder. “Just fuck me.”

Baekhyun huffs, looking somewhat miffed, but then breaks out into a sheepish smile. He gives Kyungsoo’s ass a firm squeeze, then guides his cock back to his hole. “You okay?” he asks as softly as Kyungsoo had asked him before, and when Kyungsoo nods, he sinks back in.

They both let out a breathless sound, of pleasure, of relief. Baekhyun’s hands find Kyungsoo’s hips as Kyungsoo curls his fingers into the fabric of his pillowcase, holding on tight as Baekhyun picks up where they left off. His cock hangs heavily between his legs, achingly hard now and desperate for release, and once Baekhyun settles into a steady pace, Kyungsoo braces himself on his left hand and reaches for his cock with his right.

“Oh, fuck,” Baekhyun moans as Kyungsoo’s body tightens around him. “If you do that again—”

“Do what again?” Kyungsoo says as he purposefully squeezes Baekhyun’s cock inside him. “This?”

Baekhyun gives Kyungsoo’s ass a light smack as if in reprimand, except it doesn't really help either of them, Kyungsoo groaning from the stinging pleasure and rocking back to meet Baekhyun’s next thrust, muscles squeezing around him again. Baekhyun gives Kyungsoo’s ass a firm squeeze before he slides his hand up his back instead, causing Kyungsoo to tremble. His shoulder’s shake as he struggles to continue holding himself up, jerking his cock harder, faster than before.

He’s so close he can taste it.

“Come on,” he coaxes, “come on, Baekhyun, I know you can do better than that.”

Baekhyun laughs harshly, returning his hands to Kyungsoo’s hips and dragging him back onto his cock. He leans over Kyungsoo’s back, breath hot against the nape of his neck, and grinds in deep, and that’s all it takes. Kyungsoo gives his cock just one, two more frantic strokes before he’s coming, spilling over his fingers and into the sheets.

Baekhyun slides a hand along Kyungsoo’s face and turns his head to the side to kiss him, swallowing Kyungsoo’s heady moan with his lips. Kyungsoo’s whole body feels aflame, like he’ll burn alive if Baekhyun keeps touching him but also if he doesn’t. Through the fog of pleasure, Kyungsoo feels Baekhyun come too, thrusting in a few more times. He’s surprisingly quiet, only panting roughly into the space between Kyungsoo’s shoulder blades, his grip on Kyungsoo’s hips bordering on painful.

For a few long moments, they stay like this, connected by Baekhyun’s cock, Baekhyun’s chest against Kyungsoo’s back, Baekhyun’s ragged breathing on his skin. The pendant on Baekhyun’s necklace brushes between Kyungsoo’s shoulder blades. Sweat drips down Kyungsoo’s temple, his knees are aching, but he doesn’t feel uncomfortable yet, still basking in the bliss of orgasm and the heavy heat of Baekhyun’s body against his.

He sighs softly when Baekhyun finally collects himself, his hands loosening on Kyungsoo’s waist, rubbing his fingers into the skin as if in apology. Baekhyun leaves tiny, whispering kisses from the center of Kyungsoo’s back down along his left shoulder. It’s so soft, so startling intimate, that it sends a wave of affection through Kyungsoo’s veins.

He clenches his fingers onto the pillow, twists around to meet Baekhyun’s mouth with his. Baekhyun almost sighs into it, like with satiated relief. Kyungsoo thinks he feels the same. When they pull apart, they’re both smiling, and Kyungsoo’s heart feels like it skips a beat at the flushed, handsome look on Baekhyun’s face.

“Here,” Baekhyun says, straightening up. “Let me—”

He pulls his cock out with a small hiss and Kyungsoo doesn’t quite manage to hide his own groan, feeling the ache a little more clearly now. He topples over onto his side, avoiding the spot in the sheets where he’d come, and groans again when he realizes he’ll have to redo the bedding before he can sleep. He wonders what time it is but then ultimately decides he doesn’t care, not when his attention is diverted watching Baekhyun walk butt naked into the bathroom to throw away the condom.

He licks his lips. Baekhyun might not have much of an ass but the width of his shoulders and the fullness of his thighs more than make up for it. Among other things. Kyungsoo drops his head back against the bed and blinks up at the ceiling, his brain helpfully reminding him of just how good Baekhyun had fucked him.

“Hey,” Baekhyun says, startling Kyungsoo out of his thoughts. He’s leaning against the door to the bathroom, completely unashamed about his nudity, and smiling softly. “Mind if I use the shower?”

Kyungsoo shakes his head. “Go for it,” he says. “There are more towels in the closet behind the door.”

“Sweet,” Baekhyun says, smiling wider. He turns to leave, then looks back at Kyungsoo, smile twisting into a smirk. “Wanna join me?”

Baekhyun’s probably expecting Kyungsoo to say no, so maybe that’s why Kyungsoo says, “Yes.” He climbs off the bed and laughs at the surprised look on Baekhyun’s face. He steps past Baekhyun into the bathroom and stops by the shower door. “Unless you don’t really want me to?”

“I didn’t say that!” Baekhyun exclaims, and follows Kyungsoo into the shower.

It’s been a long time since Kyungsoo has been with anyone that didn’t just leave after sex. It’s been a long time since he’s even wanted someone to stay. They clean up easily, trading a few more kisses in-between scrubbing down, and Kyungsoo offers Baekhyun some clean clothes to wear when they’ve dried off. Baekhyun holds the sweatpants in his hands, staring down at them for a moment, before he looks back up.

“Is it alright for me to stay over?” Baekhyun asks, looking suddenly unsure.

For a moment, Kyungsoo wonders if he assumed too much in giving Baekhyun the clothes without asking first. But then he decides it doesn’t matter, he wants Baekhyun to say, if that’s what Baekhyun wants too. “Yes,” he says, slipping his glasses back on. “If you don’t have to head home, then I would like for you to stay.”

A wide smile spreads across Baekhyun’s face. “I’ll stay,” he says brightly and Kyungsoo grins back, pleased.

“Let me change the sheets and we can sleep,” Kyungsoo says as he tugs on a pair of clean underwear and a shirt. He considers putting on pants even though he usually doesn’t bother with them, but then figures Baekhyun’s already seen him naked, so there’s no point in covering up for him now.

“Mind if I get some water?” Baekhyun asks once he’s dressed, and Kyungsoo is both pleased and frustrated to find he hadn’t bothered with putting on a shirt.

He pointedly ignores the expanse of Baekhyun’s chest and shakes his head. “Help yourself. There should be some clean glasses on the rack by the sink,” he says, and yelps when Baekhyun smacks his ass on his way out of the bedroom, cackling down the hall.

Kyungsoo grins down at his feet, runs a hand through his damp hair, and takes a deep breath. This has been an unexpected night, but not unwelcome. He doesn’t feel nervous. He feels right at home as usual, and with Baekhyun here, he feels, well, happy.

He strips the sheets on the bed and throws them into the laundry in his closet, grabs new sheets from the hall closet and fits them on over the corners, smoothing down the middle. He climbs onto the bed afterward, sighing at the nice, clean feeling, and stares up at the ceiling for a few moments before he realizes Baekhyun hasn’t come back. He rolls off the other side of the bed and heads out the door toward the kitchen, says, “You better not be snooping around in my fridge.”

He finds Baekhyun in the kitchen, not staring into the fridge, but at the various photos and post-its Kyungsoo has spread over the fridge door. He’s holding a glass of water in his hand and jumps slightly when he hears Kyungsoo approach, casting a sheepish smile at Kyungsoo over his shoulder.

“Sorry,” he says. “I got distracted.” He smiles a little more softly and points to a picture of Kyungsoo with Chanyeol taken like fifteen years ago. “Cute,” he says. “I can’t believe you had red hair.”

Kyungsoo laughs, glancing at the photo and the funny faces he and Chanyeol were making into the camera. “Chanyeol—my friend in the picture—basically dragged me to get it done. Thought it would be fun to do right before graduation. I only had it for like a month before I got tired of the upkeep.”

Baekhyun grins at him. “I would say you should get it dyed again,” he says, reaching a hand out to run it over Kyungsoo’s hair, “but I like this look a lot too.”

“I’ll leave the hair dyeing to you,” Kyungsoo chuckles, remembering their conversation in the car. Baekhyun would look good blond, or red, or any color or cut he wanted, Kyungsoo thinks, but doesn’t tell him that. Instead he reaches up to take Baekhyun’s hand in his and tugs him out of the kitchen. “Come on,” he says, “let’s sleep.”

Kyungsoo releases Baekhyun’s hand once he reaches the bed, climbing up onto the sheets and waiting for Baekhyun to follow. Baekhyun sips at his glass of water and just watches Kyungsoo, long enough that Kyungsoo feels his ears grow hot. He turns away, looking for something to distract him, and remembers to grab his phone from the pocket of his jeans still on the floor. He grabs Baekhyun’s as well and sets them onto the nightstand, plugs his in.

“I think I have an extra charger around somewhere if you need it,” he offers to Baekhyun, who takes his phone from him to check.

“I’m at 63%,” he says, handing it back. “I think it’ll be fine.”

Kyungsoo nods, setting Baekhyun’s phone back and adding his glasses to the table as well. He slides back into bed, and after a moment pats the space beside him. “Are you coming, or are you just gonna stand there?” he asks.

“I’m drinking my water,” Baekhyun says, holding up his now mostly-empty glass. “Hydration is important.”

Kyungsoo rolls his eyes, but leaves him to it, sinking down under the covers and turning onto this side, his back to Baekhyun. The long night is catching up to him now, eyelids drooping with exhaustion. He hears the soft click of the lightswitch, then hears the bed creaking slightly as Baekhyun finally joins him, immediately sticking his cold feet against Kyungsoo’s, making Kyungsoo laugh and kick him away.

Baekhyun curls up against Kyungsoo’s back, his breath tickling against his ear. “We gotta take a picture together that you can put up on your fridge too,” he murmurs, winding an arm around Kyungsoo’s waist.

Kyungsoo laughs softly and doesn’t even bother opening his eyes as he responds, “Hmm, maybe tomorrow.”

There’s a moment’s pause, then Baekhyun says, “Okay,” and squeezes Kyungsoo tighter.

Kyungsoo smiles into his pillow as Baekhyun presses a soft kiss to the back of his neck and easily falls into slumber.

❖

Kyungsoo’s alarm wakes him up in the morning, ringing loudly through the room until he’s groaning, trying to burrow under the pillows. Except it’s not a pillow he’s using, he realizes slowly through his sleep-addled brain, it’s a body—a very warm, comfortable body. He doesn’t want to open his eyes, wants to cling longer to the peacefulness of his dreams, but his alarm is still ringing and the pillow-body under him is moving now too, making a rumbling noise of dissatisfaction.

A few moments later, Kyungsoo’s alarm turns off. Silence rings in his ears instead. He knows he should wake up, turn his alarm off completely before it rings again, but it takes him awhile to finally listen to the voice of reason in his head and not the impulse of laziness.

He blinks his eyes open, adjusting to the dim lighting of his room, and realizes it’s Baekhyun next to him that he’s practically using as a personal body pillow. Embarrassment creeps hotly up the back of Kyungsoo’s neck. He’s fully awake now, suddenly completely aware of just how closely they’re pressed together, how Baekhyun’s hand is wrapped around his waist, how their legs are tangled. He wants to roll away, but he thinks that would only make it more embarrassing, drawing attention to it instead of acting like it’s not happening.

And besides—it does _feel_ nice.

The alarm goes off again before Kyungsoo manages to get up, and this time Baekhyun groans aloud, tightening his arm around Kyungsoo’s waist. Kyungsoo tries to reach over and grab his phone, but when he fails, Baekhyun manages to pick it up from the nightstand, tapping at the screen until it turns off.

“Thanks,” Kyungsoo mutters as Baekhyun sets the phone aside in favor of turning onto his side just enough to pull Kyungsoo into his arms.

Baekhyun hums sleepily into Kyungsoo’s hair and squeezes him. “I didn’t really peg you as the cuddly type,” he says softly, a hint of a laugh in his voice.

“Oh my god,” Kyungsoo groans, shoving him back with a hand against his chest. “Shut up.”

“It’s cute,” Baekhyun says and Kyungsoo can feel him grinning. “You’re cute.”

“And you’re gonna get kicked out of bed if you don’t shut up,” Kyungsoo grumbles, but he’s not really annoyed, just a little mortified.

“Wow, you’re really not a morning person, are you?” Baekhyun laughs, petting Kyungsoo’s hair gently and Kyungsoo wants to protest, whine, burrow his face into Baekhyun’s chest, but also shove him away and hide under the pillows.

He does none of those things, just mutters, “Oh my god,” into Baekhyun’s warm skin before he manages to ease himself from Baekhyun’s arms, practically rolling right off the side of the bed.

Baekhyun whines, begs for Kyungsoo to come back, but Kyungsoo resolutely stomps toward the bathroom. He needs some space, needs to catch his breath, needs to get ready for work anyway.

“Wanna shower together again?” Baekhyun asks when Kyungsoo looks back at him, cheeky smirk across his face as he stretches out along the bed.

“Go back to sleep,” Kyungsoo tells him, stepping into the bathroom, but he can’t quite hide the grin that’s tugging at his lips. He closes the door on Baekhyun’s cackling laugh and leans back against it for a few moments, smiling down at the floor. He rubs at his face and heads for the sink, takes his time to wash up and wake up, letting the tiredness in his body melt away as much as possible.

In the clear light of day, everything that happened last night feels even more real. It sounds ridiculous even to Kyungsoo’s own mind, thinking of it like that, because it’s not like they were even drunk. Well, maybe a little intoxicated off of each other, if the way they had practically attacked each other the second they arrived at his apartment was any indication, but definitely not on alcohol. He flushes warm, thinking about it, and splashes some cold water onto his face.

He doesn’t regret any of it though. Not one second of it. But he _does_ feel a little embarrassed, remembering how quickly Baekhyun had worked him up and how much he had enjoyed it. It was only their second date.

“God,” Kyungsoo mutters, drying his face off with a towel. “This is crazy.”

He looks back into the mirror and finds himself smiling. Maybe this is crazy, but the longer he thinks about it, the more he accepts it. There’s nothing wrong with a little crazy. Everything about his relationship with Baekhyun has been unexpected and that’s what’s made it fun, exciting.

Kyungsoo is happy, and that’s all that really matters.

When he finishes freshening up and steps out of the bathroom, he’s pleased to find Baekhyun right where he left him, looking perfectly at home in Kyungsoo’s bed. He’s laying on his stomach, tapping out a message on his phone, and flashes Kyungsoo a grin when he walks over, sits at the edge of the bed.

“Hey,” Kyungsoo says, reaching over to run his fingers through Baekhyun’s hair which is falling into his eyes. “What’re you doing?”

“Jongdae and I had a bet going, on how long it’d take for us to hook up,” Baekhyun says easily, lips curling up at Kyungsoo. “He owes me fifty bucks now, so I’m gloating.”

Kyungsoo drops his hand. “Seriously?” he says, feeling sudden tightness in his chest. He’s not sure if he should be offended or simply hurt. Is that what last night was really about? It can’t be, right?

Baekhyun stares at him for a long, nearly agonizing moment, then bursts into laughter. The little knot that had formed in Kyungsoo’s chest comes slowly undone as he realizes Baekhyun was only _joking_.

He punches Baekhyun in the arm, hard, and Baekhyun’s laugh turns into an anguished pain, rolling away from Kyungsoo toward the opposite edge of the bed. He’s still grinning though, and Kyungsoo finds he can’t quite stay mad either.

“You’re a dick,” he says simply, turning away to pick up his glasses from the nightstand and slide them onto his face. He can’t believe he fell for that.

He feels the bed moving under him as Baekhyun rolls back over and climbs up onto his knees so he can wrap his body around Kyungsoo’s from behind, notching his chin into Kyungsoo’s shoulder. “Don’t be mad,” he whines, poking Kyungsoo in the sides with his fingers and laughing again when Kyungsoo swats him away.

“I’m not,” he says honestly, turning around to look at Baekhyun. When he doesn’t seem entirely convinced, Kyungsoo sighs and adds, “It should’ve been obvious you were joking, but I had just been thinking how, well, nice last night was, and so hearing you say that—”

“Made it seem like I didn’t care,” Baekhyun finishes for him. Kyungsoo nods, and Baekhyun takes his hands in his, lacing their fingers together. “I’m sorry,” he murmurs, softly, genuinely. “I _was_ texting Jongdae, but it wasn’t about a bet or anything like that. Though he does seem to think you usually aren’t so quick to put out.”

Kyungsoo laughs at that because Jongdae’s not wrong, really. “He unfortunately knows me too well,” he says which makes Baekhyun grin.

“He’s really terrible like that, isn’t he?” Baekhyun laughs, but then quiets down and rubs his thumb across Kyungsoo’s knuckles. “I hope you know that last night was really nice for me too. I had a good time. A _really_ good time. You’re amazing, Kyungsoo, and I’m sorry I made you question that even for a moment.”

Fuck, he’s so—Kyungsoo can’t believe he’s found someone like Baekhyun, who is so full of life and so quick to poke and prod and tease, but at the same time is this kind, gentle soul, who doesn’t want to hurt Kyungsoo’s feelings. It’s ridiculous how much Kyungsoo likes him already.

“Come here,” he says, tugging at Baekhyun’s hands until he’s able to kiss him, just a firm press of their lips together, once, twice, three times, before he pulls back. “It’s okay,” he says, resting his forehead against Baekhyun’s for a moment, gazing into his deep, warm eyes. “I probably overreacted anyway. It’s too early for feelings.”

That has Baekhyun laughing brightly, tipping his head back as he’s overcome with his mirth. He releases Kyungsoo’s hands to cup his face instead, gently brushing his thumbs along Kyungsoo’s cheekbones, and leans back in for one more kiss. “It’s not too early for kisses, though,” Baekhyun says.

“No, it’s not,” Kyungsoo agrees, but then pushes Baekhyun back when he tries to come in for more. “That is, once you’ve brushed your teeth.”

Baekhyun pouts, but when Kyungsoo points at the bathroom, he relents, hauling himself up off the bed. Kyungsoo follows him, finds an extra toothbrush in one of the drawers under the sink, still in the packaging, and hands it to Baekhyun. “I’ll go start some coffee,” he says and before he can leave, Baekhyun squeezes his fingers, tugging him over to give him a kiss on the cheek.

In the quiet of the kitchen, Kyungsoo gathers his composure as he prepares a quick breakfast. It’s early, barely even seven o’clock, but there’s enough time to eat before he has to get ready for work, and he finds he doesn’t want to just kick Baekhyun out. The more time they can spend together, the better, and that’s just another one of those crazy pieces about this whole thing.

He hears Baekhyun coming down the hall before he sees him because he’s singing the Pokemon theme song along the way, wearing a bright grin as he dances goofily into the kitchen and wraps his arms around Kyungsoo’s waist. “Gotta catch them all!” he sings into Kyungsoo’s ear, and then adds, “Or just one.”

“Are you saying I’m a Pokemon?” Kyungsoo laughs, twisting around to look at him.

“Yeah, you’re a Geodude,” Baekhyun says, completely straight-faced, but breaks into giggles when Kyungsoo pinches one of his nipples in response. “What kind of Pokemon do you think I am?”

Kyungsoo gives Baekhyun a slow once over. “I don’t know,” he says teasingly as his gaze settles back on Baekhyun’s face. “Snorlax?”

“ _What_?” Baekhyun exclaims, affronted, and Kyungsoo just laughs, turning back to the stove to remove the scrambled eggs he’d been making onto a plate. “What’re you trying to say, huh? That I’m always sleepy? Or that I’m big and cuddly looking?”

“Maybe it’s because you snore,” Kyungsoo retorts, even though it’s not true at all. In all honesty, Baekhyun kind of reminds Kyungsoo more of a Jigglypuff—round-faced and very cute. He doesn’t tell him that though.

“I do not!” Baekhyun says. “You’re just being mean.”

Kyungsoo laughs and thrusts a fork into Baekhyun’s hand. “Shut up and eat your food, Snorlax,” he says and Baekhyun whines childishly, but does as he’s told, stabbing a few pieces of the scrambled eggs and stuffing them grumpily into his mouth. Kyungsoo grins and appeases him with a soft kiss to the forehead which immediately makes Baekhyun melt, if only for a moment.

“For a chef of your caliber, I was expecting a Michelin-star quality breakfast here,” Baekhyun says, mouth curling in amusement.

Kyungsoo tugs the plate away from him. “Then, fine, you don’t have to eat,” he says, and Baekhyun quickly changes his tune, pulling the plate back.

“I’m kidding!” he yells. “If I had tried making these, I probably would’ve burned them.”

Kyungsoo shakes his head. “Hopeless,” he mutters, but he’s smiling. Baekhyun grins back at him, shrugging a shoulder like he can’t help it, and it’s so cute that Kyungsoo leans close to kiss him. It’s just a short kiss, but it seems to catch Baekhyun off guard, his eyes wide when Kyungsoo pulls back that it makes Kyungsoo laugh. He pushes the plate toward Baekhyun and says, “Come on, eat up. I need to get ready for work soon.”

Baekhyun jerks out of his trance at that, groaning a little as he stabs at the eggs with his fork again. “Ugh, work,” he says. “That reminds me I’m heading out of town again next week.”

“Where are you going?” Kyungsoo asks as he suddenly remembers to grab the coffee he had made from the other counter, handing Baekhyun his mug and taking a sip from his own.

“D.C. again,” Baekhyun says. “I leave on Monday and I’ll be gone for the week again.” He glances down into his mug and sighs. “I was never really bothered by all the traveling, but right now…” He looks up at Kyungsoo pointedly and Kyungsoo feels a little flustered at the implication, but smiles, nudges Baekhyun lightly with his foot.

“Hey, it’s your job,” he says. “I understand.”

“The timing sucks though,” Baekhyun says. “After we...After last night.”

“It’s not like it was my first time having sex, you know,” Kyungsoo says dryly, and he laughs when Baekhyun narrows his eyes at him like he doesn’t particularly want the reminder. “I’m just saying, I get it. Last night was unexpected, but I don’t regret it.”

“Me either,” Baekhyun says quickly.

“Then, what’s the problem?” Kyungsoo asks. “Unless you’re only thinking about how you don’t want to wait a whole week before we can do it again.”

“Yup, that’s exactly it,” Baekhyun laughs. “So, are you free Sunday night so we can enjoy ourselves before I leave?”

Kyungsoo is, actually, but he doesn’t say it, just takes another sip from his mug. He can tell Baekhyun is kidding, especially since he waggles his brows at Kyungsoo teasingly, and he can tell that Baekhyun wants to say something more, so he waits instead.

It takes a few moments. Baekhyun sighs again, takes a sip from his coffee and sets the mug down carefully onto the counter. “I know we don’t have the time right now,” he says, “so maybe we can meet up again this weekend before I leave, even if it’s just for a quick lunch or something?” Baekhyun runs his finger along the rim of his mug. “I’d like to see you before I go and I think we can talk and...I don’t know. It sounds silly saying it aloud but I guess I just want to make sure that last night didn’t change anything.”

“It didn’t,” Kyungsoo says immediately, but he understands Baekhyun’s concern. They haven’t known each other for that long, haven’t been dating that long, and last night was spur of the moment, caught up in feelings and each other. “Not for me.”

“Not for me, either,” Baekhyun says with a soft smile.

“Okay. Good.” Kyungsoo licks his lips, sets down the fork in his hand so he can reach for Baekhyun’s, slides his thumb over his knuckles. “At least we’re on the same page about that,” he says. “We can talk about the rest this weekend. I’m working the night shift on Saturday so maybe we can do lunch.”

Baekhyun grins widely and nods. “I’d love that,” he says, already practically vibrating with excitement, so Kyungsoo’s not surprised when Baekhyun darts forward to kiss him.

Kyungsoo laughs, kisses him back until they’re both giggling, and then turns away because he knows if he gets too caught up, it’ll be even harder to stop. “Finish eating,” he says, picking up his coffee again, and Baekhyun gives him a little wink, but complies.

“Do you want a ride to work?” Baekhyun asks later as Kyungsoo washes the few dishes they’d used this morning, setting them aside onto the drying rack afterward.

It’s tempting to accept, but Kyungsoo doesn’t want Baekhyun to have to go out of his way, and it’s easier to just drive home himself instead of needing to get an Uber in the evening. “No, it’s fine,” he says, flashing Baekhyun a small smile. “Thanks for asking though.”

Baekhyun sighs, slumping over the countertop but says, “Probably for the best. It just extends the morning and makes it harder to say goodbye later.”

Kyungsoo knows what he means. Whenever he spends time with Baekhyun it never feels long enough, and even after being together the whole night, he’s reluctant to see him leave. Baekhyun leaves to get dressed as Kyungsoo finishes cleaning up around the kitchen. When Baekhyun returns, Kyungsoo leads him to the door and doesn’t stop Baekhyun from pulling him in close for even more sweet, soft kisses. They probably kiss for too long, but when they finally part, they’re laughing like they know it.

Baekhyun slips on his shoes and opens the door, stepping out into the hall as Kyungsoo leans against the doorframe to watch him. He looks just as handsome this morning as he did last night in the same clothes but maybe a little gentler with his hair soft in his face.

“So I guess I’ll see you on Saturday, right?” Baekhyun says.

“Yeah,” Kyungsoo confirms with a nod. “I’m sure we’ll talk before then though.”

Baekhyun grins widely at that. “You’ll get a text from me before I even make it back to my car,” he laughs and Kyungsoo doesn’t doubt it one bit. In fact, he’s looking forward to it.

“Go already,” he says, waving Baekhyun away. “I have to get ready myself or I’ll be late.”

“I can really feel your love, Kyungsoo,” Baekhyun teases, but he sweeps in for one last smacking kiss before he turns to leave.

He only makes it two steps before he’s suddenly whirling back around. “Hey, I just remembered,” he says, walking back up close. “You never gave me a score for last night.”

Kyungsoo blinks at him, confused for a long moment until he remembers what Baekhyun’s talking about. He laughs, probably too loud for so early in the morning, the sound echoing a little down the hallway, but the way Baekhyun is looking at him, with sparkling, warm eyes makes Kyungsoo feel like he doesn’t care if anyone else hears him. He’s just so happy.

“I give you a nine out of ten,” he teases, reaching out to curl his fingers into the front of Baekhyun’s sweater, “because there’s always room for improvement.”

And he tugs him back for another kiss before Baekhyun can complain, putting all his happiness and want and desire into the press of his mouth until Baekhyun is responding with just as much enthusiasm. His hands fall to Kyungsoo’s hips, pulling Kyungsoo up against him so that Kyungsoo can practically feel the heat radiating from Baekhyun’s body. Kyungsoo doesn’t even know long they kiss like that in the open doorway of his apartment, but it’s difficult to let go, and he’s almost surprised when it’s Baekhyun who does.

“Fuck,” he murmurs against Kyungsoo’s lips, “fuck, I should go.”

“Wait, just—” Kyungsoo says, chasing after for another kiss that makes Baekhyun softly moan.

“Go back inside, babe,” Baekhyun laughs, pulling back, even though it seems like the last thing he wants to do. “Get dressed and go to work.”

Kyungsoo takes a deep breath and slowly lets it out, knows that Baekhyun’s right, knows that he needs to get his shit together this morning and be an adult, no matter how tempting it is to just keep kissing Baekhyun like this. He takes a step back, puts some space between them, and it helps, a little.

“I’ll talk to you later,” he says finally and Baekhyun nods, taking one of Kyungsoo’s hands to squeeze his fingers.

“Later,” Baekhyun says, grinning. “Promise.”

He lets go of Kyungsoo’s hand, gives a small wave, and heads down the hall. Kyungsoo waits until he’s out of sight before he returns inside, closing the door behind him. He feels almost dizzy from Baekhyun’s kisses, Baekhyun’s touch, can’t remember the last time he ever wanted someone this much. It’s crazy but he likes it.

By the time he makes it back to his room, there’s a message from Baekhyun waiting on his phone.

 _miss u already :*_ , it reads, followed by two more a second later.

_told u i wouldn’t make it long_  
_see u saturday ❤️_

❖

Saturday comes much sooner than expected. When Kyungsoo goes to meet Baekhyun for lunch, he realizes that while it’s only been a week since he met Baekhyun in person for the first time since the airport, it’s been almost a month since they met entirely.

The past week has already been so eventful, changing the course of Kyungsoo’s life in a way he hadn’t been expecting. He wasn’t looking to date anyone, wasn’t looking to start a relationship—romantic or otherwise—with anyone, and yet, here he is, feeling excited and nervous and eager to see Baekhyun again, like he hadn’t just seen him three days before. He’s much more enamored than he has ever been, and he’s okay with that.

He thinks Baekhyun might be, too.

Baekhyun looks nice today, even dressed in athletic pants, a simple white t-shirt, and a baseball cap that he pulls off when Kyungsoo meets him in front of the restaurant so he can sweep down to kiss him in greeting. “Hey,” he says softly as he pulls back. “You’re late.”

Kyungsoo jabs him in the stomach with two fingers. “You’re just early,” he says smoothly and heads through the doors, smiling as he hears Baekhyun yelp and follow quickly after.

They order up at the counter and then find a small table near the window. Kyungsoo chuckles softly when Baekhyun groans as he lowers himself into his seat. He gives Kyungsoo a sheepish smile and explains, “I met with my trainer before this. It was leg day.”

That explains his outfit, Kyungsoo thinks as he nods. “You meet with a trainer?” he asks.

“Yeah,” Baekhyun says. “It’s not very regular, since my schedule can be unpredictable with all the traveling, but I get lazy about going to the gym and Yixing—my trainer—he’s really good about pushing me to get my butt into shape.”

Kyungsoo hums thoughtfully and says, “I think your butt is fine as it is,” and smiles when Baekhyun barks out a surprised laugh.

“Thanks,” he says, smirking. “Not as fine as yours though.”

Kyungsoo rolls his eyes and hopes he’s not blushing. “Yeah, yeah, enough of that,” he says, cutting off this topic of conversation before it gets carried away. He hasn’t forgotten Baekhyun’s comments from the other day, nor the way his hands felt squeezing his ass as he pushed his dick inside. Fuck. He shakes his head slightly, pushing the thoughts aside. Now is not the time or place.

The way Baekhyun is still smirking at him makes it seem like he can tell exactly what Kyungsoo is thinking. Luckily, he’s saved by a server stopping by their table with their food, setting down their plates and drinks with a smile and plucking the numbered card from the middle of the table before he leaves. Kyungsoo reaches for his glass of lemonade for a drink and watches as Baekhyun immediately digs into his bowl of pasta, swirling the noodles around his fork.

For awhile they eat in comfortable silence. Kyungsoo likes that they don’t always have to talk, that just sitting here with Baekhyun is enough to make him relaxed and happy. He takes a bite out of his fried chicken sandwich and gazes out the window at the sunny Saturday afternoon streets. Baekhyun joins him after a moment, and they both excitedly point at the adorable poodles that walk by with their owner. It reminds Baekhyun about his own dog, and he’s pulling out his phone to show Kyungsoo pictures of Mongryong that his mom had sent him recently, laughing at the floral bonnet Mongryong’s wearing in a few of the shots.

Kyungsoo smiles at the fond expression on Baekhyun’s face as he looks at the pictures, sets his sandwich down and reaches for his drink again. He takes a few sips and says, without even really thinking about it, “I’m glad I got to see you today, especially before you leave.”

Baekhyun looks up from his phone, a little surprised before he smiles too. He puts his phone face-down on the table and nods. “God, me too,” he says, sounding rather wistful about it. “Too bad you can’t just come with me.” He pouts cutely, like it’s the most awful thing in the world that Kyungsoo has to stay here.

“A whole week apart,” Kyungsoo drawls teasingly. “However will we survive?”

“Right!” Baekhyun exclaims, smacking his hand to the table, but his eyes are sparkling knowingly. “Not to mention the three hour time difference!”

“Cruel and unusual,” Kyungsoo says, shaking his head. “Clearly you should just cancel your trip.”

“Gonna send my client an email right now,” Baekhyun says, dramatically picking up his phone as if he’s actually gonna do it. “Can’t make it, gotta spend the week with my—” He cuts himself off suddenly but before Kyungsoo can even think to ask what’s wrong, he quickly amends, “I’ve got a date with this cute guy I’m seeing.”

“I’m not cute,” Kyungsoo says instinctively, even though it’s not really what he’s concerned about. His mind replays what Baekhyun had almost said. Spend the week with his _what_?

The only thing Kyungsoo can think of is _boyfriend_ and just that word makes heat fizzle throughout his body. Boyfriend. He looks at Baekhyun, so handsome even in his casual athletic wear, even with his baseball cap casting a shadow across his face, and thinks that he wouldn’t mind Baekhyun as his boyfriend. Thinks he might prefer it, actually.

Baekhyun cut himself off before he said it though. Maybe he thinks it’s too early for labels. This is only date number three, after all.

Still, Kyungsoo is somewhat pleased that Baekhyun has considered it.

He smiles down at his plate, picks up his sandwich for another bite as Baekhyun says, “Liar. You’re adorable,” and it takes Kyungsoo a minute to even remember what he’s talking about, his thoughts so focused on the _boyfriend_ thing that he forgot what he last said.

Kyungsoo laughs, shaking his head, and because he knows Baekhyun will continue to insist that he’s right, he deflects. “Do you think using a date is a viable excuse to call out of work?” Kyungsoo says. “Because I’ll text Junmyeon with it right now.”

“It definitely _should_ be,” Baekhyun says, grinning widely. “This is still new for us.” He waves a hand between them. “Separation anxiety is a real thing, I hear.”

“Yeah, with infants,” Kyungoso snorts, and they both laugh at that, loudly enough to draw a few glances from neighboring tables. But Kyungsoo ignores them and so does Baekhyun, who simply pops a cherry tomato from his pasta into his mouth and pushes his bowl toward Kyungsoo.

“Try some,” he says once he’s swallowed. “You’ll like it.”

Kyungsoo does like it, moaning a little at the taste, and from there, they trade even more bits and pieces of their meals with each other. Kyungsoo tries not to stare too blatantly when Baekhyun licks off some of the sauce from his sandwich that gets smeared around his lips. He’s not very successful because Baekhyun smirks at him afterward, nudging Kyungsoo’s foot under the table like he’s chiding him for being so obvious. Kyungsoo figures leaning over the table to kiss that smug look off his face would only draw more attention to them so he kicks Baekhyun back and takes a drink from his glass instead.

Baekhyun laughs, amused, and tugs his bowl back close, swirls some more pasta around his fork but doesn’t eat. Instead he looks up at Kyungsoo and says, “So, I know we kind of just jumped right into all of this.”

Kyungsoo sets his glass down again and smiles. “It has been a pretty eventful week, huh?” he says, thinking about everything that has happened and changed between them.

A grin spreads across Baekhyun’s face again. He nods with a small chuckle and says, “Yeah, I’m—Like I’m still kind of shocked you were so blunt about the dating thing when we met last weekend.”

Kyungsoo shrugs a shoulder. “I like knowing where something is going instead of worrying about it on my own,” he says. “I’m not afraid to speak my mind, I guess.”

“I like that about you,” Baekhyun says so softly, so genuinely, it makes warmth bloom across Kyungsoo’s chest. “And I’m glad you did.” He sets his pasta-swirled fork back down without eating any of it, and instead fiddles with his napkin. “I’m kind of the opposite, I think,” he says, laughs. “I always wait until I’m like, completely sure I wouldn’t get shot down.” He gives Kyungsoo such an adorable, sheepish smile that Kyungsoo wants to kiss him again. “I get nervous when I really like someone.”

“Really?” Kyungsoo says, because all this time he felt like he was the only one out of his depth. “I could never tell.”

“It’s because I hide all my nervousness behind my excessive flirting,” Baekhyun says blithely.

Kyungsoo laughs. “Now _that_ I can see.”

“Anyway!” Baekhyun says, laughing a little too as he pushes his now balled-up napkin aside and picks his fork up again. “The point is that I just want to make sure we’re still...feeling good about everything I guess. Like you said, it’s been an eventful week.”

Kyungsoo nods, sliding a hand through his hair as he thinks about their first date, and their second. Remembers how nice it was to be with Baekhyun, whether it was having lunch or watching the movie or kissing him pressed up against Kyungsoo’s apartment door. “Yeah, it has,” he says after a moment, appreciating that Baekhyun never pushes him to speak before he’s ready, waiting quietly as Kyungsoo collects his thoughts. “And I won’t pretend that this—everything between us—hasn’t moved faster than I expected it to but like, I’m okay with that.”

He licks his lips and meets Baekhyun’s eyes directly, and adds, “To be perfectly blunt again, I like you, Baekhyun, and just like you said the other night about not wanting us to be a typical Tinder hookup or whatever, I don’t want that either. I think I’ve made it clear that I’m interested in you for more than that.” Kyungsoo takes a breath, fidgets with his napkin, and then continues, “I mean, if all I did want from you was sex, we probably could’ve gotten that over with weeks ago when we first met.”

That makes Baekhyun laugh. “Sex at the airport?” he says, a sleazy smile to his lips. “I didn’t think you had that in you.”

“Who said airport?” Kyungsoo returns smoothly. “I was thinking on the airplane.”

It’s not often that Baekhyun is rendered speechless, so Kyungsoo enjoys the way Baekhyun gapes at him, mouth open but no words coming out. He chuckles softly, takes another bite from his sandwich, and waits for Baekhyun’s brain to reboot. It takes a couple of seconds, but then Baekhyun clears his throat, dropping his fork against his bowl and fiddling with his napkin again, and eventually says, “Have you, uh, done that before?”

Kyungsoo takes a sip from his lemonade. “Maybe,” he says and doesn’t elaborate further, finding pleasure in Baekhyun’s stunned demeanor.

“God, Kyungsoo,” Baekhyun groans, slumping in his seat. “You like driving me crazy, don’t you?”

Kyungsoo laughs, deep from his chest, head tilting back as Baekhyun continues to grumble. When he catches his breath, he straightens up in his seat, grinning widely at Baekhyun who can’t seem to hold onto his annoyance, his own lips twitching into a smile. “I drive you crazy, huh?” Kyungsoo asks, smirking a little as he picks up the last of his sandwich to finish.

“I plead the fifth,” Baekhyun says, but his smile is fully on his face now, and his eyes are beautifully bright.

Kyungsoo lets him have it, wiping off his face with his napkin once he’s done eating, and says, “Tell me how you’re feeling about everything.”

“I like you too,” Baekhyun says instantly, without pause or preamble. It shocks Kyungsoo for a brief second, but then he just feels incredible warmth throughout his whole body, a sort of bubbling happiness that he hasn’t experienced in a long time like this. “I _really_ like you, Kyungsoo, and I want to date you. I want to take you on dates and I want to get to know you even better and I want to kiss you and maybe do some other stuff too.”

“Some other stuff, huh?” Kyungsoo laughs. “What kind of stuff?”

“Stuff that’s not appropriate to talk about in a public setting,” Baekhyun says seriously, but then he laughs too. “I obviously enjoyed the other night, and I would like to have a repeat sometime.”

“I’m sure that can be arranged,” Kyungsoo says. “When you get back from D.C.”

Baekhyun groans at the reminder and Kyungsoo lets out a soft chuckle, lifting his glass to take another drink.

“It’ll be fine,” he says easily. “Don’t forget that phone sex is a thing.”

That has Baekhyun gaping at Kyungsoo in surprise, a pink blush spreading across his cheeks. “Fuck,” Baekhyun moans, “you’re trying to kill me today, aren’t you?”

Kyungsoo hums around the rim of his glass, sipping the last of his drink before he sets it aside. “I think I much prefer you alive,” he says softly. “And if you’re done eating, I think we have enough time to make out a little before I have to head to work.”

“I’m done,” Baekhyun says immediately, even though he does have some pasta left in his bowl. He looks down at it, then at Kyungsoo, then back at the bowl, and quickly gathers up a large forkful to shove into his mouth. “Okay,” he says around his large bite, holding a hand up to cover his mouth as he chews. “Now I’m done.”

Kyungsoo laughs, somewhat disgusted and yet strangely endeared, and shakes his head as he stands. “Just for that, you’re not getting anything,” he says as he heads for the door, Baekhyun flailing after him.

Kyungsoo’s threat doesn’t last very long, mostly because it wasn’t a real threat. It’s hard to say no to Baekhyun, and Kyungsoo has discovered he doesn’t particularly want to anyway, not when he likes him this much, and likes the way Baekhyun pulls him into his arms when they reach his car to kiss Kyungsoo again and again.

“So, it’s decided then, right?” Baekhyun murmurs against his lips in-between their kisses. “We’re doing this. Dating. Each other.”

“Yes,” Kyungsoo laughs breathlessly, curling his fingers around Baekhyun’s hips.

“Good.” Baekhyun kisses the corner of Kyungsoo’s mouth, then dips down slightly to do the same along his jaw. “Exclusively, by the way. Don’t go hooking up with some other guy while I’m gone.”

Kyungsoo slides a hand from Baekhyun’s hip to pinch his stomach and grins at the way Baekhyun yelps. “I’m not planning on it,” he says and fixes his mouth to Baekhyun’s again before he can say something else stupid.

❖

It’s crazy how just a handful of dates can change so much. Life is so unpredictable, throwing curveballs whenever Kyungsoo is least expecting it. Baekhyun was a curveball. Or maybe more like a wrecking ball, destroying Kyungsoo’s simple life with his pretty smiles and endless flirting.

Even with Baekhyun across the country, they find ways to keep up with each other easily. Baekhyun texts whenever he’s not busy, and seems to be a fan of sending Kyungsoo photos of himself in really nice suits, demanding attention that Kyungsoo only sometimes returns. Baekhyun doesn’t need to know that he saves every photo to his phone and imagines what it would be like to slowly peel Baekhyun out of those clothes.

And it’s strangely kind of nice to have this time apart, knowing that he can’t actually see Baekhyun for awhile, giving him time to recalibrate. Refocus. After seeing Baekhyun so much last week, this short respite is almost necessary, letting him concentrate on his work, his friends, his life outside of Baekhyun and their shiny, new relationship.

He comes up with two new dishes for the restaurant menu, he goes to see a movie late Tuesday night by himself, enjoying the practically empty theater and a small box of nachos. He has lunch with Jongdae and Minseok, and makes plans to meet Chanyeol at the end of the week for a movie marathon. He treats Sehun to a drink after a long shift that included a couple of very rude patrons and listens to every adorable story Sehun has to tell about his dog.

On Thursday night, he calls Baekhyun once he’s made it home, once he knows Baekhyun’s in the safety of his hotel, and he makes good on that promise of phone sex, drawing pretty, breathless whimpers out of Baekhyun’s mouth and wishing he could see him as he comes.

“Jesus fucking Christ,” is about all Baekhyun seems capable of saying afterward, his breath coming out harshly through the phone, and Kyungsoo proudly considers that to be glowing praise.

“I’ll take that as a score of ten out of ten,” Kyungsoo laughs, sinking back against his pillows and feeling pretty sated, himself.

“Fuck, more like a fifteen out of ten,” Baekhyun groans. After a few moments of silence, Baekhyun adds, “Everything you said tonight, I expect you to _do_ when I get back to L.A,” in such a low voice that Kyungsoo almost comes again.

Instead he huffs out an incredulous laugh and says, “We’ll see.”

Before he hangs up, he asks, “When do you land on Saturday?”

There’s a bit of shuffling on the other end, like Baekhyun is getting more comfortable in bed, and Kyungsoo waits patiently for him to speak. “I think it’s around three in the afternoon?” Baekhyun says with a soft sigh. Kyungsoo imagines him lying back in his hotel bed, his hair messy and cheeks still flushed from his orgasm and sighs too, closing his eyes for a moment as he listens to Baekhyun’s warm voice. “I can’t wait to get home already. It’s been a long trip.”

“I was thinking,” Kyungsoo says slowly, licking his lips, “that maybe you could come over that night if you’re feeling up to it and I could cook dinner.”

A beat of silence follows Kyungsoo’s offer. Then, Baekhyun says, “Fuck, that sounds like the best coming home present ever. I’ll bring dessert.”

“Deal,” Kyungsoo laughs, a little relieved by the positive reaction. “Let me know if you have any food allergies I should be aware of so I don’t accidently poison you.”

Baekhyun laughs too. “It’s not really an allergy, but I don’t like cucumbers,” he says. “But I’ll eat pretty much anything else.”

“Got it,” Kyungsoo says, already running a mental list of potential recipes he can make this weekend.

“Can’t wait,” Baekhyun says, and yeah, Kyungsoo doesn’t think he can either.

The following day goes by incredibly slowly, as if the universe is aware of how much he’s looking forward to the weekend. He gets through the morning easily, has lunch with Junmyeon, and then accidentally slices open a finger while filleting salmon.

“Fuck,” he mutters, staring down at the drops of blood that have fallen onto the counter. He quickly grabs a clean towel from a shelf behind him and presses it against the cut, wincing at the burn from the pressure.

“You okay, boss?” calls out Seulgi, his sous chef, and Kyungsoo nods as he glances around the kitchen.

“Probably just need a bandaid,” he says. “Take over for me for a few minutes, okay? Disinfect this whole area.” He waves around the spot where he’d been working.

“No problem,” she says with a grin, already handing off what she’d been preparing to Lisa.

Kyungsoo heads for the small bathroom in the back to run his hand under the warm faucet. It’s not the worst injury he’s ever gotten on the job, but it’s a bit inconvenient. He doesn’t like the disruption from his regular workflow and he’ll probably have to wear gloves for the rest of the shift just to protect the food he touches from any contamination.

He grimaces as he cleans the cut but is grateful that it doesn’t look like he needs stitches. When it doesn’t seem like the cut is bleeding quite as profusely, Kyungsoo turns off the faucet, presses a clean patch of the towel against his finger, and goes to find Junmyeon.

Junmyeon takes one look at Kyungsoo’s bleeding finger and somehow turns a shade paler than he already is. “Where’s the first aid kit?” Kyungsoo asks calmly and Wendy, sitting up at the front desk, leads him into Junmyeon’s office while Junmyeon follows behind weakly.

“Do I need to call an ambulance?” he asks after a moment, perching at the edge of his desk while Wendy sits at the small couch along the far wall.

Kyungsoo snorts as he goes to join her. “Does it look like I need an ambulance?” He glances over at Junmyeon and adds, “I think _you’re_ the one who might need an ambulance. You look like you’re gonna pass out.”

“I’m fine,” Junmyeon says, even though he’s very obviously avoiding looking at Kyungsoo’s bloody hand. “Just let me know when you’re done.”

Wendy laughs as she pulls out antiseptic from the kit and carefully applies it to Kyungsoo’s cut. “It’s not that bad,” she says. “It’s already stopped bleeding.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Junmyeon says, still not looking.

Kyungsoo shares an amused gaze with Wendy, then looks back down at his hand. She presses some gauze over the cut and then wraps it with bandages.

“It should be okay like this,” she says. “If it starts bleeding badly again, you should definitely go to a hospital.”

“I think it’s fine,” Kyungsoo says, staring at his wrapped finger. “I’ll be careful with it, let Seulgi run the kitchen for awhile just to make sure.”

“Good plan,” Wendy says with a smile. She snaps the first aid kit closed and stands to put it away in the closet, patting Junmyeon on the back as she goes. Junmyeon jumps and she says, “Are you like this if your kids get hurt? Stop being a baby,” before walking out the door and back to the front desk.

“I’m not a baby,” Junmyeon mumbles with a small pout but then turns to Kyungsoo with serious eyes and adds, “Are you sure you’re okay?”

Kyungsoo nods. “I’ll let you know if it gets worse for any reason,” he says.

Junmyeon eyes him for a moment, like he’s trying to assess Kyungsoo’s entire physical state by staring at him like he has X-ray vision. Then he lets out a relieved sigh and offers Kyungsoo a small smile. “All right,” he says. “Get back to work then.”

Kyungsoo gives him a little two-finger salute with his injured hand and Junmyeon makes a face that’s halfway between a laugh and a wince. It makes Kyungsoo chuckle to himself as he leaves his office, stopping to thank Wendy on his way back to the kitchen.

Production hasn’t slowed even a bit. He smiles, watching as Seulgi finishes up a plate and slides it onto the counter for the next waiter to deliver. “Did you take care of the—” Kyungsoo starts.

“Everything’s clean,” she says with a perfunctory nod. “I remade the dish you were working on and personally delivered it to make up for the delay.”

“Thanks,” Kyungsoo says, pleased and proud. “I’m gonna grab a quick snack and I’ll be back to work.”

She nods, turns back to what she was doing, and Kyungsoo heads to the back break room. He grabs the water bottle and granola bar he’s left in his bag and collapses into a chair. He takes a few bites from the granola bar and almost instantaneously feels better, letting his eyes fall shut as he focuses only on chewing.

He enjoys the quiet as he eats, gains back the strength from the pain and shock of his injury. Only once he’s finished his granola bar does he pull out his phone to check the time. There’s only a handful of hours left in the day. He looks down at his bandaged finger. It doesn’t hurt as much as earlier, just a dull throb that he’s sure will go away soon.

On impulse, he takes a photo of his finger and sends it to Baekhyun with a short message.

_Today’s casualty._

He shakes his head at himself, a small smile at his lips, and puts his phone away. He can check Baekhyun’s reply later. For now, it’s time to get back to work.

❖

_are you okay? what happened??  
who do i have to fight?  
i mean, after i kiss u better of course!!!  
pls be careful baby_

Baekhyun’s reply is waiting on Kyungsoo’s phone by the time he makes it to Chanyeol’s place that night for a late dinner. He feels his face warm up from the _baby_ , easily imagining Baekhyun whispering it to him in his soft voice, can even imagine Baekhyun kissing his finger over the bandage, and kissing him, too, after, all serious about it like it will actually help him heal.

Kyungsoo thinks it actually might.

He doesn’t tell Baekhyun that though. Instead, he says, _I’m fine, don’t worry. Hope your day was less dangerous_ and tucks his phone into his pocket. He takes a moment to gather ahold of himself, pushing aside thoughts of Baekhyun before he knocks on Chanyeol’s door.

It’s been awhile since he’s seen Chanyeol, so the minute Chanyeol swings his door open and greets Kyungsoo with a bright grin and warm hug has Kyungsoo forgetting everything else in favor of enjoying a night with his best friend.

“Come in, come in,” Chanyeol says in his booming voice as he releases Kyungsoo and steps aside so Kyungsoo can enter. “I just ordered our usual pizza and wings, if that’s good with you? Want something to drink? Wait—What happened to your hand?”

Kyungsoo laughs, removing his shoes and then his coat, which Chanyeol takes from him to hang up in the closet. “I cut my finger over a piece of salmon,” Kyungsoo says smoothly and laughs more at the disgusted expression that fills Chanyeol’s face. “It’s fine now. But Junmyeon almost fainted when he saw it.”

That makes Chanyeol laugh too. “He’s always been weak to blood,” he says, like he isn’t exactly the same. “Wanna play Mario Kart while we wait for the food?”

Kyungsoo readily agrees and ends up on Chanyeol’s couch with a controller in his hands and Chanyeol kicking him every time Kyungsoo speeds past him on the course. Kyungsoo kicks back after awhile of this treatment, laughing as he tries to pin Chanyeol’s ridiculously long limbs under his own while still maintaining control of his character on the screen. He wins their first match, and the second, and Chanyeol grumbles, “Best out of five!” before booting up another round.

Chanyeol sulks when Kyungsoo takes home the win in their fourth round, effectively deeming the fifth unnecessary. “How is that even fair, you haven’t played in ages _and_ you’re injured,” Chanyeol huffs. “Cheater.”

Kyungsoo laughs, smacks him on the shoulder. “Don’t be a sore loser,” he says, setting his controller aside to pick up his beer for a drink. When Chanyeol continues pouting, Kyungsoo offers, “I’ll pay the delivery guy when he gets here to make up for it.”

Needless to say, that perks Chanyeol right back up. “Fuck yeah,” he says. “Winner _should_ pay! Thanks bro.”

Kyungsoo rolls his eyes but accepts when Chanyeol hands his controller back for another round. By the time they finish, their food arrives and Kyungsoo dutifully heads to the door with his wallet to pay for the stack of food Chanyeol ordered. “Were you expecting to feed an army tonight?” Kyungsoo says as he deposits the boxes onto the coffee table.

“The leftovers are for me to enjoy the rest of the week,” Chanyeol says, flipping open a box of pizza and reaching for a slice. “Lazy cooking.”

“That is _not_ lazy cooking,” Kyungsoo says as he heads for the kitchen to grab some napkins and plates, even though he has a feeling they won’t be used. “That’s just being _lazy_.”

“You only say that because you’re a chef,” Chanyeol yells back. “Not everyone can make gourmet dishes for every meal.”

“I never said I do,” Kyungsoo says. He grabs two more beers from the fridge as well before he returns to the living room, carefully setting everything down on the coffee table and taking a spot on the floor. It reminds him of how he’s planning to cook for Baekhyun tomorrow. “Sometimes I don’t have the time to cook either. But that doesn’t mean I’m eating leftover pizza for a week. You’re not like Baekhyun, I _know_ you can cook.”

He hadn’t meant to say Baekhyun, honestly, but his name slipped out instead of Jongdae’s or even Junmyeon’s, both of whom can barely boil water. But Baekhyun was on his mind and it’s his name that comes out instead, and Chanyeol looks somewhat gleeful at the mention, like he’s been waiting this whole time to talk about him but didn’t want to be the first one to bring him up.

“Speaking of Baekhyun,” he says, stretching his legs out under the coffee table. “How’s that going?”

Before Kyungsoo can even respond, Chanyeol reaches out to smack his arm. “And I can’t believe you didn’t say anything to me! I had to hear it from _Jongdae_ ,” he says with an offended pout.

Kyungsoo kicks his foot under the table and takes a bite out of a chicken wing, chewing slowly to give himself more time to gather his thoughts. “It’s not like I was hiding it,” he says after he swallows. “Jongdae only told you because he found it hilarious that he was trying to set us up but we already knew each other.”

“It _is_ hilarious,” Chanyeol says. “Not as hilarious as the airport story, but it’s up there.”

Kyungsoo groans at the reminder and takes another bite of his chicken as Chanyeol cackles. “To answer your first question,” he says a few moments later, “Things are fine. We’ve gone on a few dates. He’s coming over to my place tomorrow for dinner. I’m cooking. He’s bringing dessert.”

“Is _he_ the dessert?” Chanyeol questions with a sleazy grin that makes Kyungsoo’s ears burn hot even as he throws the bone from his wing at Chanyeol’s face.

Chanyeol shrieks and rolls away from the attack, then makes a face when he picks it up from the floor. “Gross, dude,” he says, tossing it onto one of the plates Kyungsoo had brought over.

“You’re gross,” Kyungsoo grumbles, still a little flustered by Chanyeol’s earlier implications. It’s not like he hasn’t thought about it, but having sex with Baekhyun was not necessarily part of his plan for tomorrow night. He’s just happy to see Baekhyun at all. God, he’s got it _bad_.

“You have it bad,” Chanyeol says, like he can read Kyungsoo’s fucking mind. “I can see it on your face.”

Kyungsoo drops his head against the coffee table and lets out probably a very pathetic whine that only makes Chanyeol laugh.

“Don’t be like that,” Chanyeol says after his laughter dies down. Kyungsoo peeks up at him and is surprised to find a soft, almost fond smile on his face. “It’s cute that you’re so into him. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen you like this.”

That doesn’t particularly help Kyungsoo’s embarrassment, but he does pick himself off the table and reach for a slice of pizza.

“Not that you need to be dating anyone to have, like, fulfillment in life, or anything,” Chanyeol adds, scrunching up his nose. “But you work really hard and when you’re _not_ working, you’re thinking about working, so I’m glad for you, that you have a distraction.”

Kyungsoo chuckles a bit at that, because Chanyeol is not wrong. Baekhyun _is_ a distraction, but a welcome one, brightening up Kyungsoo’s life in ways he never expected. “Thanks, Chanyeol,” he says softly, rubbing the back of his neck. “It’s still pretty new, you know.”

Chanyeol hums around a mouthful of pizza. Once he swallows it down, he says, “Hasn’t it been like a month since you met him though? Sure, you’ve only been on a few dates, but it doesn’t feel like it’s been _that_ fast.”

Kyungsoo opens his mouth, but then closes it when he realizes he doesn’t have a rebuttal. Chanyeol is right. Again. Kyungsoo hates when that happens. He grumpily takes a bite out of his pizza as their conversation lulls into comfortable silence and considers everything. It _has_ been nearly a month. It’s October now, and Kyungsoo met Baekhyun that first week of September when he’d gone home for Seungsoo’s wedding.

He and Baekhyun had talked about this too, hadn’t they? That despite how soon they went from being friends to being in a relationship, that this is what they both wanted.

“Huh,” Kyungsoo murmurs aloud. “You might have a point.”

“Of course I do,” Chanyeol says smugly. “You tend to overthink things, man. Sometimes it’s good to just go with the flow.”

Kyungsoo stares up at him, astounded by such a simple way of thinking. Chanyeol points the tip of his chicken drumstick at Kyungsoo and adds, “You like him, right?”

Goddammit, Kyungsoo is blushing again. “Yes,” he grits out because there’s no point in lying.

Chanyeol’s grin is shark-like. “Then what’s the problem?” he asks and Kyungsoo honestly has no appropriate response.

He settles for an old favorite. “Shut up,” he says, turning away from Chanyeol and taking another bite from his pizza.

To his credit, Chanyeol only laughs for a moment, then leans back on the couch and boots up Netflix on the television. “What do you wanna watch?” he asks after giving Kyungsoo a few moments of companionable silence.

Kyungsoo licks his lips and smiles gratefully at Chanyeol. “You pick,” he offers and smiles all the wider at Chanyeol’s victorious cheer.

❖

“What’re you planning on making tonight?”

Kyungsoo glances around the kitchen, at the ingredients he’s already pulled out from the fridge and set across the counter. “Spaghetti alle vongole,” he tells his mom over the phone. “You know, the one with the clams.”

“Ohh,” his mother says, sounding somewhat surprised. “You must _really_ like this boy, huh?”

Kyungsoo groans, embarrassment creeping up the back of his neck in a hot flush. He’s glad he’s alone in his apartment and his mom can’t actually see him. “ _Mom_ ,” he whines, because he doesn’t know what else to say when she’s so right.

“What!” she laughs. “Am I wrong?”

Kyungsoo huffs, slumps over an empty space on the counter in defeat, hanging his head. “No,” he admits after a long moment, “I do really like him.”

She laughs again and Kyungsoo can’t help but crack a small smile. She sounds amused and happy by his mortification. “You’re trying to impress him! That’s very sweet, Kyungsoo-yah,” she says and Kyungsoo kind of wants to bury himself under the pile of laundry he’s got in the closet to see if it’s enough to suffocate him and save him from this conversation. But then his mom adds, gently, “I hope you have a good date, honey. And you should send me a picture of this boy soon so I can see what he looks like.”

Kyungsoo bites his lip, considers for a moment, then says, “Ah, wait a second and I’ll send one right now,” he says and pulls his phone from his ear to flip through his gallery. He sends his mom a selfie Baekhyun sent him earlier that day, actually, once he’d gotten dressed for his last meeting before flying back to L.A.

“Oh, my! He’s very handsome!” his mother exclaims, and Kyungsoo laughs because he thought the same thing when the photo first greeted him that morning. “Are you sure he’s not too good for you?”

The teasing lilt to his mom’s voice makes Kyungsoo groan again, but he’s smiling when she dissolves into laughter and he pretends to be offended when he says, “I’m hanging up now.”

His mother cackles and Kyungsoo says he’ll call her again later before he ends the call. He sets his phone onto the counter and sighs, running a hand through his hair and then wincing when he realizes he’s probably messed it up after spending time actually styling it for tonight’s date.

Just the thought has Kyungsoo both anxious and excited. He didn’t think it was really possible to miss someone so much, especially since it’s only been a week since he’s seen Baekhyun and it’s not like they haven’t been in contact the entire time. And yet, he can’t wait. He wants to see him, kiss him, hear about his trip, tell him about everything that he’s been up to in the past few days as well.

He’s nervous about dinner—not necessarily the cooking part but hoping that Baekhyun likes everything he’s put together. His mom was right about that, he _is_ trying to impress Baekhyun, even though he thinks he probably doesn’t have to, not anymore.

He looks around the kitchen, at the pot of water on the stove that he’s been waiting to boil for the pasta, and the tray of home-made garlic bread that’s waiting to join the bacon-wrapped asparagus in the oven. He’s getting hungry just looking at everything and he taps at his phone to check the time. Before he even has the chance to feel silly about Baekhyun only being five minutes late, there’s a knock at the door and he jumps, startled, just as a message pops up on his phone.

 _i’m hereeee! let me in :(((_ is the message from Baekhyun that has Kyungsoo laughing, shaking his head, even as the knocking at his door gets a little louder.

He takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly, wiping his hands down the front of his apron and calming his nerves. He takes a few steps out of the kitchen, only to quickly run back to glance in the microwave door to fix his hair.

Once he deems his appearance sufficient enough, he answers the front door, swinging it open to reveal a smiling Baekhyun standing on the other side looking as handsome as ever in a leather jacket and his hair parted neatly down one side, bangs sweeping across his forehead. Kyungsoo wants to grab him by the collar of his jacket and drag him inside to kiss him, but keeps his cool long enough to say, “You don’t think you knocked enough?”

Baekhyun laughs, and god, Kyungsoo really missed that sound. Hearing it over the phone is nothing like hearing it in person. “It’s nice to see you, too, Kyungsoo,” Baekhyun says before he leans in to press a kiss to Kyungsoo’s cheek.

Just that simple press of Baekhyun’s lips against his skin has Kyungsoo’s body burning. He can feel himself blushing and Baekhyun’s smug smile makes it obvious he can see it on Kyungsoo’s face. The desire to kiss Baekhyun hasn’t faded away, especially now that Kyungsoo wants to kiss that smirk off his face on top of just wanting to kiss him in general. He steps aside to let Baekhyun into the apartment, and once the door closes behind them, he presses Baekhyun up against it and says, “You know, after a whole week apart, I thought you’d be more aggressive.”

“What? The cheek kiss wasn’t enough?” Baekhyun says, eyes sparkling with mischief like he did it on purpose just to rile Kyungsoo up.

And Kyungsoo doesn’t care if it makes him needy or desperate, admitting this. He says, “No, it wasn’t,” and finds Baekhyun’s mouth with his to kiss him properly, fully, deeply. He feels victorious when it’s Baekhyun who makes a whimpering little noise first, gasping against Kyungsoo’s mouth before he kisses back. All the tension that’s been building up inside Kyungsoo since he woke up this morning, counting down the hours until Baekhyun would come over, finally fades away, leaves him satisfied and pleased, now that Baekhyun is here, pressed against him, breath hot against his lips.

“Fuck, Kyungsoo—” Baekhyun groans. “I’m gonna—I don’t wanna drop the—fuck—the dessert.”

Kyungsoo stills. Blinks. He pulls back just far enough for Baekhyun to hold up a paper bag in each of his hands. He hadn’t even noticed them before.

“Cheesecake,” Baekhyun says, lifting his left hand up a little higher, then his right. “Wine.”

Kyungsoo laughs at himself for being so distracted by Baekhyun’s mere presence to even _notice_ his hands were full, and at the sheepish expression on Baekhyun’s face. He darts forward for one final kiss, a smacking press of their lips, then releases Baekhyun entirely.

“Well, come on then,” he says, straightening his glasses on his nose. “I’ll show you where you can put those.”

Baekhyun grins and nods. He removes his shoes and lines them up together next to the wall, then follows Kyungsoo into the kitchen. “Holy shit, Kyungsoo,” Baekhyun says, stopping in the entryway to stare around the kitchen with wide eyes. “You prepared all of this?”

Kyungsoo gives a small chuckle and rubs the back of his neck. “Yeah, I went a little overboard,” he says. “I hope you don’t mind.”

“Mind?” Baekhyun exclaims, incredulous, and it seems to be enough to shake off the shock because he walks further into the kitchen and sets the bags onto the counter. “I’m so _excited_ , oh my god. It already looks amazing.” He looks back over at him and Kyungsoo thinks he’s definitely impressed. “ _You’re amazing_.”

Kyungsoo laughs more fully at that, shaking his head as he helps Baekhyun unload the bags, taking the cheesecake and bottle of white wine to the fridge. “It’s nothing too fancy, really,” he says, heading for the stove to check if the pasta water is boiling yet. “Just something I felt like cooking and that I thought you might like.”

“Tell me what you’re making,” Baekhyun says, earnest. “Tell me how I can help.”

Cooking with Baekhyun turns out to be quite fun. Baekhyun’s not a certified chef by any means, but he has decent enough knife skills to chop up a quick salad. Plus he makes the wait time in-between everything else a bit more enjoyable, with the way he steals sneaky kisses whenever Kyungsoo least expects it.

He watches with interest when Kyungsoo thoroughly cleans the clams and pulls out his phone to play some music as Kyungsoo slides the garlic bread into the oven and adds the spaghetti to the boiling water. The gentle sound of John Legend’s voice fills up the spaces of Kyungsoo’s kitchen, a calming melody to Baekhyun’s occasional jokes and teasing comments.

When Baekhyun finishes the salad, Kyungsoo delegates him to set the table, showing him where the plates and utensils are while he finishes the spaghetti. He carefully pulls the noodles out of the pot and into a frying pan that’s already been heating off some garlic and he gives the pan a little swirl and a shake. He pours in some of his own white wine he uses for cooking, and then adds in the clams, enjoying the delicious aroma that’s filling the kitchen.

“You really know what you’re doing,” Baekhyun says from where he’s watching Kyungsoo from the other side of the counter, sitting at one of the stools there.

Kyungsoo chuckles, suddenly very aware of the attention. “Yeah, I mean, it’s kind of my job,” he says.

Baekhyun waves a hand at him and says, “I know _that_. I just mean, you’re really comfortable with everything, and like, you don’t have to second-guess what you’re doing. It’s cool to watch, actually.”

Kyungsoo glances at him, a little warmth creeping up the back of his neck, and Baekhyun smiles at him somewhat cheekily, propping his chin up on his hand, elbow perched on the counter.

“Besides,” he says, a little gleam in his eyes, “you have really nice hands and I like seeing what they can do.”

The unexpected comment makes Kyungsoo suddenly forget all his cooking skills, his movements stiffer than usual when he gives the pan a toss. A few clams scatter out of the pan onto the stove and Kyungsoo jumps in surprise, embarrassment flooding his veins. He can’t believe he made such a rookie mistake.

Baekhyun bursts out laughing, but it’s not mean. He just looks amused when Kyungsoo glances over, and relaxes a little at the wide smile on Baekhyun’s lips.

“I don’t usually have someone staring at me like this,” Kyungsoo mutters, feeling the need to explain himself as he turns back to the stove to carefully pick up the few runaway clams and add them back to the pan.

“Am I making you nervous?” Baekhyun says, and when Kyungsoo glances over this time, it’s to find the smile on Baekhyun’s lips has been replaced by an infuriating smirk.

“If I say yes, will it make you even more smug?” Kyungsoo asks, unable to hide his own smile when Baekhyun laughs again.

“Probably,” he says.

“Then no,” Kyungsoo answers, turning his attention back to the stove. “You’re definitely not making me nervous at all.”

He hears Baekhyun huff, something between a laugh and a sound of disbelief, hears him round the counter. He expects it when Baekhyun’s hands settle at his hips so he doesn’t flinch, doesn’t jump, doesn’t send clams out of the pan again, just enjoys the heat of Baekhyun’s body as he presses up behind him.

“You’re a terrible liar, Kyungsoo,” Baekhyun says in a shockingly low voice and leaves a small kiss right behind Kyungsoo’s right ear.

Kyungsoo bites his lip to keep from doing something embarrassingly like _moaning_ or abandoning the dish entirely to turn around and kiss Baekhyun senseless. It’s ridiculous how much the slightest touch sends his nerves on fire, like he’s never been touched at all. Like he’s been parched for a whole week and now Baekhyun’s presence and his voice and the heat of his fingers are like cool water under a desert sun.

“And you’re very distracting,” Kyungsoo murmurs, twisting just enough to look at Baekhyun over his shoulder.

Baekhyun kisses him and Kyungsoo melts into it, warm from the Baekhyun’s tongue sliding into his mouth and from the heat of the stove behind him. It’s not a very long kiss, but it’s still enough to have Kyungsoo somehow equally satisfied and aching for more. Baekhyun looks incredibly smug again so Kyungsoo turns back to the stove and lightly jabs his elbow back into Baekhyun’s gut.

The yelp Baekhyun lets out is both parts hilarious and gratifying. “Meanie,” Baekhyun whines, wrapping his arms around Kyungsoo’s waist to squeeze him as if in punishment, except Kyungsoo quite likes the way Baekhyun feels like this, warm and strong. He lets go a moment later, patting Kyungsoo’s butt as he releases him, and when Kyungsoo glances over his shoulder, it’s to watch as Baekhyun cleans up the counter, throws out trash, and takes the knives and cutting boards to the sink.

“You don’t have to—” Kyungsoo starts as Baekhyun runs the faucet, but Baekhyun just flashes him a grin.

“I don’t mind,” he says. “You cooked. I’ll wash up. Besides, if we get some of this done before we eat, we have more time to enjoy other things afterward.”

He gives Kyungsoo a cheeky wink, then cackles as he turns back to the dishes. Kyungsoo shakes his head, unable to fight the smile on his face, and tries not to think about what kinds of things they could spend their time enjoying tonight.

Thankfully there’s dinner to worry about, and making sure he doesn’t burn anything. The pasta doesn’t need much more time, and the asparagus is ready to pull out from the oven. He pulls out the garlic bread as well, gives each of them a flip, and slides the tray back in for another few minutes.

“Where are your wine glasses?” Baekhyun asks, pulling the bottle he’d bought from the fridge.

“Here,” Kyungsoo says, pulling two glasses from a cupboard, and Baekhyun takes them, bottle tucked under his arm, to the table.

By the time everything is finished, Kyungsoo is starving. He sets down the bowl of vongole onto the table and lets out a deep breath, resting his hands at his hips as he observes the table. He smiles when Baekhyun hugs him from behind again, slipping his hands through the spaces of Kyungsoo’s arms and gently swaying Kyungsoo from side to side.

Kyungsoo laughs, nudges his glasses up his nose, and turns around to look at him. “Ready to eat?” he asks and Baekhyun grins.

“You have no idea,” he says, but before Kyungsoo can step away, Baekhyun slides his hands from around Kyungsoo’s waist and pulls at one of the straps of Kyungsoo’s apron. “By the way, have I mentioned how cute you look in this?”

Kyungsoo looks down at the apron, which he honestly forgot he’s still even wearing, and then back up at Baekhyun, his ears growing hot. “It’s just an apron,” he says, because he’s not sure what else there is to say.

“Yeah, and it looks nice on you,” Baekhyun says with a laugh.

“Well, it’s coming off now,” Kyungsoo says, smiling a little at the sound of Baekhyun’s amusement. Baekhyun releases him so it’s easier for Kyungsoo to untie the knot around his waist and pull the apron off over his head, gently folding it in half before resting it on the counter to put away later.

“Would you look at that,” Baekhyun says, giving Kyungsoo a slow, pointed once-over, “still cute.”

Kyungsoo lightly smacks Baekhyun in the chest with the back of his hand and quickly retreats to his seat at the table. “Sit down already so we can eat,” he says and thankfully Baekhyun obliges.

“I’ve missed being able to tease you in person,” Baekhyun says as he joins Kyungsoo at the table. “It’s not quite as fun over text.”

“So I have more of this to look forward to tonight?” Kyungsoo asks dryly as he takes a piece of the bacon-wrapped asparagus for himself.

Baekhyun laughs, scooping up some of the vongole onto his plate, and says, “This looks amazing, Kyungsoo,” and the sudden shift in conversation toward his cooking only makes Kyungsoo even more flustered.

“I hope you like it,” Kyungsoo says, rubbing the back of his neck. “I probably should’ve asked if you even like clams, shit, I didn’t even think about how a spaghetti alle vongole would be so unusual—”

“I love clams,” Baekhyun says, cutting off Kyungsoo’s rambling with an earnestness that makes it impossible not to believe him. “And I love bacon and garlic bread. Plus, I don’t see a single cucumber anywhere.” He laughs again, taking a slice of the bread to add to his plate. “So relax, okay? You did great.”

“You haven’t even tasted anything yet,” Kyungsoo mutters, but he laughs at himself too, knowing that he’s worried over nothing really. Kyungsoo _knows_ he’s a good cook and Baekhyun’s words are already comforting. He shakes his head, piles some of the vongole onto his own plate, and picks up his fork.

Baekhyun has already shoveled a forkful into his mouth and Kyungsoo tries not to watch him as he eats, anticipating his reaction. It’s hard not to _hear_ him though, the small moan he lets out that Kyungsoo can only assume is a good reaction, focusing on pulling a piece of clam out from its shell to pop into his mouth.

It could use a little more pepper, he thinks, but Baekhyun’s empathetic, “Holy shit, this might be the best spaghetti I’ve ever had.”

“You’re just saying that,” Kyungsoo protests, ears growing hot.

“Shut up,” Baekhyun shoots back, lightly kicking Kyungsoo under the table. “Let me shower your legendary skills with compliments, okay?”

The way he smiles at Kyungsoo afterward makes Kyungsoo’s heart melt in his chest. He can hear the sincerity in Baekhyun’s voice, in the gentleness of his expression, and it takes all of Kyungsoo’s effort to keep from reaching over the table to drag him into a kiss.

Instead he smiles, kicks Baekhyun back, and says, “I’m not very good with compliments, but I suppose tonight I’ll let you.”

“Good,” Baekhyun says. “Because this is seriously incredible and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to stop talking about it.”

Kyungsoo laughs more fully at that, nudges his glasses up his nose, and swirls the spaghetti around his fork. “Well, I’m glad you like it,” he says honestly, and all the nerves remaining in his body fade away with Baekhyun’s bright, pleased smile.

Dinner goes smoothly after that and Baekhyun wasn’t kidding when he said he was going to shower Kyungsoo in compliments. He’s very enthusiastic about everything Kyungsoo’s prepared, even asking what sauce Kyungsoo put on the bacon to make it taste so great.

“It’s teriyaki sauce,” Kyungsoo says. “Which, I know, doesn’t really go along with everything else on the table, but I like how it tastes too much to change it.”

“Hey, you’re not seeing me complaining,” Baekhyun says as he pointedly takes another piece for himself. “Actually, it reminds me of something I had while I was in D.C.”

Baekhyun tells him about the impressive events he attended over the past week, the delicious food he had that makes Kyungsoo somewhat envious, and all the people he met. Baekhyun’s worklife is so vastly different from Kyungsoo’s; where Kyungsoo mostly meets new people if he’s catering a wedding at a hotel or if high clientele have come for a stay, Baekhyun is always meeting someone for the first time, trying to impress them, to pitch a certain plan and bring them on board with whatever project he’s promoting at the time. But Kyungsoo can picture Baekhyun so easily in that kind of environment, dressed handsomely in a suit and transforming casual small-talk into a full-fledged conversation, making everyone around him laugh at his jokes.

After all, that’s sort of how they met.

Thinking about it brings a smile to Kyungsoo’s face, but also makes him wonder something he realizes he’s never asked Baekhyun about before. “How did you get into lobbying?” he asks as he twirls some of the spaghetti around on his fork. “I can’t imagine it’s something you heard about when you were five and spent your whole life chasing after.”

Baekhyun laughs, bright and effervescent. “I’m sure there’s been a kid or two in history who’ve been exactly like that,” he says. “But you’re right, that definitely wasn’t me. When I was five, I wanted to be a K-Pop idol.” He laughs again, like it’s a funny joke, and adds, “My mom was really into, like, Shinhwa back in the day and I wanted to be a singer.”

“That’s really cute,” Kyungsoo says, dying a little inside at the image of a baby-faced five-year-old Baekhyun trying to imitate Shinhwa.

Baekhyun grins, pops a little piece of claim into his mouth and speaks again after he swallows. “I actually did take singing and music classes for awhile when I was older and I was actually a big theater kid when I was in high school.”

“No kidding,” Kyungsoo says, but he can picture that, too. “What were you in?”

“I was Don Lockwood my senior year when we did Singin’ in the Rain,” Baekhyun says, grinning proudly. “That actually made me realize I like the whole singing part more than I like the acting part, though, so I didn’t really keep up with it when I went to college.”

“I was in choir in high school,” Kyungsoo admits, scratching the side of his neck with a finger. “And for my first year in college, that is before I transferred to a culinary school.”

Baekhyun’s eyes widen a little as he reaches for his garlic bread and breaks off a piece. “You didn’t go straight to school after you graduated?” he asks.

Kyungsoo shakes his head. “I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, at first,” he says. “I never really liked school or studying and I had awful grades.”

Baekhyun snorts at that and Kyungsoo gives him a wry smile. “You seem very...I don’t know. You give off the studious impression, I guess.”

“I get that a lot,” Kyungsoo laughs. “I think it’s because I’m a stickler for rules and I’m meticulous. But I think that’s what makes me a good chef. I’ve always liked cooking. My mother taught me growing up and when I moved away for school and had to fend for myself that first year, I cooked _a lot_. I wondered why I couldn’t just do that all the time instead of sitting in lectures at university that I didn’t care about.”

“That makes a lot of sense,” Baekhyun says with a small nod. “So you switched schools?”

“Yup,” Kyungsoo says, picking up his glass of wine for a sip. “And I’m grateful everyday that I did.”

“Your parents didn’t freak out about it?”

Kyungsoo hums, thinking back on it. “My dad was somewhat disappointed, I’d say,” he admits. “But my mom was happy for me and after a couple of months, my dad got over it too. Though it might have been because I made him his favorite meal from scratch for his birthday and he was incredibly impressed.”

Baekhyun chuckles. “I bet you use your cooking to win everyone over like that, huh,” he teases.

Kyungsoo smiles around the rim of his wine glass. “Maybe,” he says. “Is it working on you?”

“Maybe,” Baekhyun parrots back, but then grins a little wider and adds, “But I think you won me over awhile ago.”

Goddammit, Kyungsoo thinks, taking a sip from his glass and shaking his head as he sets it back down. “I walked right into that one, didn’t I?”

Baekhyun cackles, delighted. “Just a little,” he says, but he looks so pleased with himself, it’s impossible for Kyungsoo to not smile back.

“Tell me how a theater kid got into lobbying,” he says, bringing the conversation back to his original question.

“I wasn’t the best student either,” Baekhyun laughs. “But I liked having things to _do_ , you know? I was in theater, but also in speech. That one actually stuck around into college. My mom always told me it made sense because I liked hearing the sound of my own voice.”

Kyungsoo laughs. “I like your mom,” he says and Baekhyun grins.

“She’s great,” he agrees. “She’s always been really supportive, even during my short-lived idol days.” Baekhyun takes a drink from his glass of wine and continues after a moment, “I wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted to do in college at first, but I ended up taking a few communications classes and then my advisor helped me get an internship the summer before my senior year with a local lobbying firm. I loved it. It was like—a little bit of everything I enjoyed doing, you know? There’s some of that acting and the public speaking and I learned a lot. Made a bunch of connections. I’m incredibly charming, you know.”

Baekhyun gives Kyungsoo a little fastidious smirk, like he’s preening, but when Kyungsoo just softly says, “I know,” his cheeks turn pink and he laughs, embarrassed.

“Anyway, a lot of the networking I did after that helped me land a job after I graduated and here I am!” He ends with a flourish, gesturing around the dining area and Kyungsoo smiles at him.

“Here, you are,” he says, gently nudging his foot against Baekhyun’s under the table. “I’m glad you’re here.”

Baekhyun’s eyes turn soft, warm like molten chocolate, and his smile makes Kyungsoo’s heart beat a little faster. “I’m glad, too,” he says.

❖

Dinner passes by like this, leisurely and happily, getting to know each other more and more. Baekhyun helps clear the table and even rolls up his sleeves to start the dishes when Kyungsoo stops him. “Let’s leave it for now,” he says, picking up the wine bottle and gesturing toward the living room. “Let’s have some more of this and keep talking, yeah?”

Baekhyun doesn't need much convincing. “I’ll get the cake, too, then,” he offers with a grin, opening the fridge.

Kyungsoo heads for the living room to set the wine and their glasses onto the coffee table. He moves aside the small cactus that sits there to make space and returns to the kitchen to pull out small dessert plates and forks.

He joins Baekhyun on the couch and watches as he pulls out the raspberry cheesecake from its box and suddenly realizes he’s forgotten something..

“We’re gonna need a knife,” he says with a laugh, and returns to the kitchen to retrieve one. When he walks back to the living room, it’s to find Baekhyun has left the cheesecake on the coffee table in favor of standing in front of Kyungsoo’s large bookshelf on the opposite wall, filled with DVDs, novels, and thick, heavy cookbooks.

“Whoa, are you some kind of movie buff?” Baekhyun says, sliding a finger across the spines of Kyungsoo’s DVDs. “I don’t think I’ve seen this many DVDs in one place outside of a store.”

Kyungsoo chuckles, rubbing the back of his neck as he sits back down on the couch. “Yeah, I really like movies,” he says. “It’s something I got into in the past couple of years. If I’d been as interested back when I was still a student, I might’ve tried to become a director instead of a chef.”

“What kind of movie would you want to make?” Baekhyun asks, glancing over at him with intrigue in his eyes.

“I don’t know actually,” Kyungsoo says with another small laugh. “I tend to like emotional, family-focused films, I guess, like Little Forest and The Last Blossoms, so maybe something like that.” He cuts out a slice of cheesecake and sets it on one plate. “But I also really liked La La Land, so who knows.”

Baekhyun groans loudly at that and Kyungsoo looks up at him in surprise. “As a former theater kid, I have to judge you tremendously for liking La La Land,” he says. “It’s _awful_.”

Kyungsoo laughs at the obvious disgust in Baekhyun’s entire demeanor. He looks incredibly put-out by this information but it’s not offensive, just entertaining. “I don’t know, I enjoyed it,” Kyungsoo says with a little shrug, and laughs again when Baekhyun full-body shudders. “But I guess I’ve never been that into musicals, so I can admit my taste might be terrible.”

“Not into musicals,” Baekhyun repeats, shaking his head like Kyungsoo has said something blasphemous. “You’re lucky you’re so cute or this might be a dealbreaker.”

Kyungsoo snorts and holds up one of the plates of cheesecake as a peace offering. “Come over here and eat your cake,” he says.

“I’m gonna convert you to musicals,” Baekhyun says as he walks back, taking the plate from Kyungsoo and joining him on the couch. “We’ll start with Singin’ in the Rain, since that’s a classic.”

“And has nothing to do with you having a personal connection to it, I’m sure,” Kyungsoo interjects with an amused smirk.

“And we can watch Guys and Dolls, and maybe one of the stage versions of Les Mis because Hollywood ruined that as well with it’s garbage movie version,” Baekhyun says, his brows furrowed in his frustration but his excited rambling is far too adorable for Kyungsoo to do nothing about.

So he sets his fork down against the side of his plate and reaches over to take hold of Baekhyun’s jaw, pulling him into a short, soft kiss. It effectively shuts Baekhyun up and releases some of the desperate tension in Kyungsoo’s body, having been thinking about kissing Baekhyun ever since the last time, before dinner.

When he pulls back, he catches the way Baekhyun’s lashes flutter as he opens his eyes, looking somewhat dazed but delightfully pink, that Kyungsoo presses their lips together once more before he releases Baekhyun. He picks up his fork and cuts off a small bite of cheesecake, enjoying the tart raspberry taste as Baekhyun struggles to get his brain working again.

“What—What was that for?” he finally manages to ask, and Kyungsoo gives him a wide, pleased smile, and says, “You’re really cute, that’s all.”

Baekhyun goes from a shade of pink to a deep red, and he looks quickly away from Kyungsoo to focus on his cheesecake. Kyungsoo laughs, settles back against the couch and says, “I’m looking forward to the musicals.”

“G-Good,” Baekhyun says, still red in the face. He takes a bite of his cheesecake and as he chews, seems to regain his composure. “I have a couple on DVD at home. Maybe next time you can come over and we can watch one.”

“Sounds like a date,” Kyungsoo says, already looking forward to it. “Did you want to watch something now?”

Baekhyun hums around his fork as he enjoys another piece of his cake. He pulls the fork out of his mouth with a wet pop and shakes his head. “Nah, I’m good like this,” he says, stretching his legs out. “Tell me what you got up to over the past week.”

“There’s not much to tell,” Kyungsoo says. “I worked a lot. Finalized two new dishes for the restaurant that they’re gonna add to the menu next month. I had lunch with Jongdae and Minseok the other day.”

“Jongdae mentioned that when I talked to him yesterday,” Baekhyun laughs. “He’s way too interested in our relationship.”

“He’ll get over it,” Kyungsoo says as he cuts the last piece of his cake in half. “I hope.”

“Unlikely,” Baekhyun says, and Kyungsoo’s suddenly aware of how intently Baekhyun watches as he eats. His eyes dip down to Kyungsoo’s mouth and back up a few times in quick succession.

Kyungsoo licks his lips once he’s swallowed, pulling the fork away from his mouth. Baekhyun continues staring. “He’s probably still mad that he didn’t get to set us up himself,” Kyungsoo says and very slowly deposits the final piece of his cake into his mouth as well. Baekhyun seems to have forgotten all about his own cake, still half-eaten on the plate in his hand.

“He’s terrible,” Baekhyun mutters.

“He’s harmless,” Kyungsoo laughs, and Baekhyun huffs, finally dragging his eyes away from Kyungsoo only to set his plate down on the coffee table.

“Why’re we even talking about Jongdae?” he asks, turning back with sudden heat in his eyes.

“Is there something else you want to talk about?” Kyungsoo asks, raising a brow at Baekhyun expectantly.

But Baekhyun shakes his head. “Not talk,” he says, gently taking Kyungsoo’s plate from his hand to add to the table. “Let’s do something else.”

Kyungsoo doesn’t even get a chance to question what he means before suddenly Baekhyun is in his lap, his pretty hands cupping Kyungsoo’s face, and his soft, pink lips slotting against Kyungsoo’s mouth. And who is Kyungsoo to complain about this?

The warmth of Baekhyun’s body as he settles atop of Kyungsoo, the heat from his mouth and his tongue and his breath as he kisses him, the curve of Baekhyun’s hips as Kyungsoo rests his hands there to hold on, ground himself as Baekhyun makes his head spin. All of it is perfectly welcome, perfectly delightful, perfectly exhilarating. He kisses back with just as much fervor, just as much desperation, and his body pulses with the heedy, heavy sensation of arousal, striking him hot and fast.

He groans into Baekhyun’s mouth, pulls him closer, hands sliding from Baekhyun’s hips to his ass. He squeezes and this time Baekhyun groans, tilts Kyungsoo’s head slightly to kiss him even deeper. Baekhyun bumps Kyungsoo’s glasses with his nose, sending them slightly askew, and Kyungsoo manages to pull them away with a hand without having to break their kiss, carefully setting them to the side of the couch.

Baekhyun lets out a short laugh against Kyungsoo’s mouth for it, and Kyungsoo slides one hand from Baekhyun’s ass all the way up to settle against the back of Baekhyun’s neck. When Kyungsoo rubs his fingers along the nape, Baekhyun sucks in a sharp breath, releases it softly, and drags Kyungsoo back into another kiss.

Kyungsoo doesn’t remember ever enjoying kissing this much, but something about Baekhyun is addicting and he can’t seem to escape. He doesn’t want to escape. He indulges himself in Baekhyun, as if every whimpered gasp, every brush of his fingertips, every gentle roll of his hips is a delicacy.

The seconds all blur together until Kyugnsoo’s unaware of just how much time has passed like this, with Baekhyun in his lap and Baekhyun’s mouth on his. HIs heart is beating loudly in his ears and his veins sing with arousal, making it almost impossible to think about anything aside from how much he wants Baekhyun and how good he feels.

So when Baekhyun breaks away first to breathlessly gasp, “Maybe—fuck—maybe we could move this to your—god—your bedroom?” it takes Kyungsoo a few long moments to even understand the words.

“You want to?” he manages to reply, his mind stuck somewhere between astounded and yearning.

The laugh Baekhyun lets out is equal parts dirty and eager. “Yeah,” he whispers in a low voice that goes straight to Kyungsoo’s dick. “I do.”

“Fuck,” Kyungsoo moans before roughly kissing Baekhyun once again. It’s short this time, because if Baekhyun wants to take this to the bedroom, then Kyungsoo will happily oblige. He pulls away a moment later and Baekhyun grins at him, wide, excited, and climbs off Kyungsoo’s lap.

As he moves out of the way, Kyungsoo’s eyes fall on the cake, still sitting open on the coffee table. He glances back up at Baekhyun and almost chokes when he notices Baekhyun’s clearly hard in his jeans and staring down at Kyungsoo expectantly.

He swallows down the thickness in his throat and rubs his hands down the front of his pants. “Let me just—put this away,” he says, quickly reaching for the cake.

“Alright,” Baekhyun says. “I think I remember where your bedroom is.”

He gives Kyungsoo a very pointed, promising look and then wanders down the hall with a little wave. Kyungsoo feels like his entire body is on fire and the only way to put it out is to follow Baekhyun. He doesn’t think he’s ever moved so fast in his life, but he puts the cake back in its box and back into the fridge in just a few minutes, and yet it was more than enough time for Baekhyun to have almost entirely stripped out of his clothes by the time Kyungsoo walks through the bedroom door.

“What can I say?” Baekhyun laughs, rubbing his palm over his cock through his boxer briefs, the only piece of clothing he’s still wearing. “I’m impatient.”

“You’re something alright,” Kyungsoo mutters as he stares at him, stunned.

“Are you just gonna stand there or are you gonna join me?” Baekhyun asks, a brow lifting almost challengingly.

Kyungsoo walks toward the bed slowly, pulling his shirt off as he goes. He lets it fall to the floor atop Baekhyun's clothes and then he climbs up onto the bed, kneeling in between Baekhyun’s bare legs. He slides a hand up Baekhyun’s right calf and feels the way he shivers under the sudden touch.

“You know, when I invited you over, this wasn’t exactly what I had planned,” Kyungsoo murmurs softly as he leans over Baekhyun.

“Really?” Baekhyun says, sounding somewhat doubtful. “I’ve barely been able to think about anything else, especially since we talked on the phone the other night.”

Kyungsoo slowly smirks, slides his hand up higher along Baekhyun’s leg, brushing along the short hairs which make Baekhyun sigh and just slightly arch his hips. “Is that right?” he says, teases, but then admits, “I suppose I have thought about that, too.”

“Good,” Baekhyun says, and finally reaches out to pull Kyungsoo closer. “Because I really want you to fuck me right now.”

Kyungsoo laughs and surges forward to kiss Baekhyun again. Somewhere in between that first kiss and the twentieth, he manages to reply, “I believe I can do that.”

❖

Kyungsoo wakes early the next morning, despite having forgotten to set an alarm. His body naturally pulls him from slumber half past eight, and it takes him another thirty minutes to even consider actually getting out of bed.

Baekhyun is warm and comfortable next to him, face smooshed into a pillow and arm wrapped around Kyungsoo’s waist. The sight is as cute as it was the last time Baekhyun stayed the night, and Kyungsoo can’t help but reach out to lightly brush his fingers along the side of Baekhyun’s face. Baekhyun doesn’t wake, and after another few moments of lying in bed, Kyungsoo finally extracts himself from Baekhyun’s embrace.

He heads for the bathroom with a yawn, thankful that he and Baekhyun had enough capacity after sex to lightly wash up before passing out. Waking up sticky and gross is uncomfortable and Kyungsoo is happy to start his day with a full shower. By the time he’s cleaned and brushed his teeth and found small bruises along the side of his neck from Baekhyun’s teeth, Baekhyun is awake, rolling around on the bed with messy hair and puffy eyes.

“You don’t have to put on clothes if you don’t want,” is apparently Baekhyun’s way of greeting. He peers at Kyungsoo from over a pillow, watching as Kyungsoo trades the towel around his waist for underwear.

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Kyungsoo says without looking back at him. He knows Baekhyun has a salacious smile stretching at his lips.

“Yes, I would,” Baekhyun says, and it’s ridiculous how flirty he can sound just minutes after waking up. “I’d like that very much.”

Kyungsoo finds a clean t-shirt, one that he wears around the house when he’s home, and pointedly turns back around to face Baekhyun as he puts it on. Baekhyun’s pout is incredibly cute but uneffective. It is, however, cute enough for Kyungsoo to walk back over to the bed to give him a quick, closed-mouth kiss.

“You’re welcome to shower,” Kyungsoo says as he pulls back and reaches for his glasses on the nightstand where they usually are, only to remember he left them on the couch last night. He sighs, runs a hand through his damp hair, and adds, “The toothbrush you used last time is still there, too. I can give you something to wear if you want.”

“A clean shirt might be nice,” Baekhyun says as he rolls onto his back, throwing his arms out to either side of the bed. The sheets fall around his waist, revealing the broadness of his chest, the softness of his stomach, and Kyungsoo drinks the sight in, even as Baekhyun rests a hand on Kyungsoo’s thigh and squeezes. “Thanks.”

“Sure,” Kyungsoo says softly. Baekhyun looks right at home here in his bed and Kyungsoo kind of wants to climb back in and join him, except his body is starting to crave something to eat. “I’m gonna make some coffee and breakfast. If you don't have anywhere to be, take your time getting out of bed.”

The way Baekhyun smiles at him makes Kyungsoo feel breathless. “A lazy Sunday morning in bed,” Baekhyun says with a sigh. “Sounds great.”

Kyungsoo laughs and kisses him again and then forces himself back to his feet. He leaves Baekhyun to lounge and picks up his glasses from the couch on the way to the kitchen, where he starts a pot of coffee and stares into his fridge to figure out what to make for breakfast. He settles on French toast and quickly whisks up a couple of eggs with some milk and vanilla. He hears the shower turn on down the hall as he finishes coating thick slices of bread in the egg mixture and begins frying everything up on the stove.

The rich scent of coffee fills up the kitchen as he cooks. French toast is easy enough that Kyungsoo can simply enjoy the process without worrying too much about the details. His mind wanders back to last night, how dinner exceeded his expectations, how he learned so much about Baekhyun he hadn’t known before, and how he got to see another side to Baekhyun, too, drawing needy, whimpering noises out of his mouth as Kyungsoo fucked him.

It was a really good night. Kyungsoo thinks the sight of Baekhyun coming on his cock will be seared into his memory for a long, long time. Even now, he can picture it clearly, and he has to push the image out of his mind before he burns the toast from his fantasizing.

The sound of the shower cutting off helps him jerk back to reality, quickly pulling the bread off the pan to set aside on a large plate and adding another piece to cook. As Kyungsoo finishes the last piece, Baekhyun walks into the kitchen, wearing just the jeans he’d had on last night.

Kyungsoo doesn’t have a chance to be distracted by all the skin on display because Baekhyun leans over the counter to look at the plate of French toast and says, “Ahh, I should’ve come to help. You made breakfast last time, too.” He pouts up at Kyungsoo. “Plus you made dinner last night.”

It makes Kyungsoo laugh as he turns off the heat on the stove. “In case you haven’t noticed,” he says. “I _like_ cooking.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean you should do it all the time,” Baekhyun protests and it’s cute, Kyungsoo thinks, how Baekhyun doesn’t seem to want Kyungsoo to think he has to cook for him every time.

That’s a major upgrade from Kyungsoo’s past relationships. “Well,” he says slowly, “next time, you can help me.”

“I’d like that,” Baekhyun says with a wide grin. “Can I take this?” He reaches for the plate of French toast.

“Take it to the couch, we can eat there,” Kyungsoo says. “I’ll grab plates and stuff.”

“Aye, aye, captain,” Baekhyun says cheekily, only to laugh right after, cackling as he heads out of the kitchen. Kyungsoo clears up the counter, setting aside the dirty mixing bowl into the sink with the rest of the dishes from last night. He thinks he might just run the dishwasher instead of washing everything by hand, but he can deal with that later.

He gets a few smaller plates and some forks and joins Baekhyun in the living room, only for Baekhyun to head back toward the kitchen. “Do you have syrup?” he calls as he goes and Kyungsoo laughs.

“Yeah, it’s in the fridge,” he says. “Grab the orange juice in there while you’re at it.”

“I’ll get the glasses too so don’t worry,” Baekhyun says, effectively stopping Kyungsoo from going back to do just that.

Instead he flops back on the couch, picks up one of the pieces of French toast and bites off a corner. Baekhyun laughs when he returns and finds him like that, setting down the stacked glasses first. “What was the point of the plate and forks if you’re just gonna eat like that?” he teases.

Kyungsoo doesn’t have a good answer so he just shrugs, but gratefully accepts one of the plates when Baekhyun hands it out. He drops his toast onto the plate, reaches for the syrup and a fork. Baekhyun pours them both glasses of juice and, as Kyungsoo cuts off a piece of his French toast with his fork, he thinks about how nice this is. How comfortably and easily Baekhyun fits into his home, how cozy and domestic it is to have breakfast like this, simply enjoying each other’s presence without the need to say too much.

He remembers how Chanyeol told him it’s been longer than Kyungsoo thinks it has, how Jongdae had said weeks ago not to overthink it and just enjoy it, and Kyungsoo thinks he’s finally able to do that now. He’s having fun with Baekhyun and he really likes Baekhyun. He doesn’t know how long this will last, but he knows he wants to enjoy this for as long as he can, and that’s enough.

“What’re you thinking about?” Baekhyun asks, nudging Kyungsoo with his elbow. “You look way too deep in thought for so early in the morning.”

Kyungsoo laughs and shakes his head, setting his plate in his lap so he can grab his glass of juice. “Just thinking that this is really nice,” he says. “I’m not particularly a morning person when I don’t have to be, but I don’t mind this.”

Baekhyun looks surprised for a moment, like he wasn’t expecting that to be Kyungsoo’s answer. But then he smiles, sweet and wide, and nods. “I don’t mind this either,” he says. “Besides, you’re feeding me again, so I definitely don’t mind that.”

“Why am I not surprised,” Kyungsoo says, aiming for deadpan but ending up laughing again anyway.

“You work later today, right?” Baekhyun asks and Kyungsoo nods around another mouthful of his breakfast.

He glances around the room, finds his phone left out on the coffee table and trades it for his plate. There’s a few notifications on the screen but he ignores those for now to pull up his calendar and double-check his schedule. Baekhyun scoots closer on the couch to peer over his shoulder but Kyungsoo doesn’t mind.  
“I gotta be in by noon,” Kyungsoo says.

“God, and I thought my schedule was a mess,” Baekhyun says with a laugh. “How aren’t you tired all the time?”

“I think it helps that I’m not running my own restaurant,” Kyungsoo says. “I’m just a chef here, not a manager, not the owner.” He’s thought about creating his own restaurant, but the idea is too daunting. He likes where he is right now. “Besides, I’m surprised you’re not more exhausted since you just got back from D.C. Are you immune to jetlag?”

“Not at all,” Baekhyun says, shaking his head. “I guess I was just too excited to spend the night with you to be tired.”

His sudden honesty makes Kyungsoo’s insides warmer than the French toast they’ve been eating. “Cute,” he murmurs quietly, looking away from Baekhyun’s gentle gaze. He checks his phone again for missed messages and emails, just for something to do, and he accidentally ends up in the folder where the pink Tinder app catches his eye.

“I guess you don’t need that anymore,” Baekhyun says, notching his chin on Kyungsoo’s shoulder. Kyungsoo doesn’t have to ask to know what he’s talking about.

He is surprised when Baekhyun reaches over to press down on the app until the delete option appears on the screen. Kyungsoo stares down at it, considering. He hasn’t used Tinder since that day at the airport. There hasn’t been a need for it. He doesn’t think he’ll need to look at it again for a long time.

“I guess so,” he agrees, and presses the delete button, watching as the app disappears from his phone.

Once it’s gone, Baekhyun laughs. “Yeah, definitely don’t need it. Now that you have an incredibly sexy boyfriend and all.”

The word _boyfriend_ has Kyungsoo’s whole body burning with satisfaction, with hope, with approval, but he doesn’t want to appear too pleased. Instead he sets his phone aside and looks over at Baekhyun, says, “Is that what you are? My boyfriend?”

Baekhyun pulls back just a little, no longer leaning against Kyungsoo but able to look him directly in the eyes. His gaze is soft and sincere and hopeful, too, and when he says, “I think I would like to be,” Kyungsoo wants nothing more than to kiss him.

So that’s what he does, sliding a hand along Baekhyun’s jaw and pressing their mouths together with fervent enthusiasm. He swallows up Baekhyun’s surprised gasp and his gentle moan of acceptance, feels the way Baekhyun clutches at Kyungsoo’s shirt, something to hold onto as Kyungsoo kisses him, again and again and again.

And somewhere after all of that, after Kyungsoo has had his fill of Baekhyun’s mouth and Baekhyun’s adorable little noises, he smiles widely at Baekhyun and says, “I think I’d like that, too.”

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. look. i will write about sexy chef kyungsoo until the day i dIE u can’t sTOP ME 
> 
> 2\. everything i learned about hotel restaurants was from google and i apologize if there are any discrepancies, i went with the most accurate (and fitting) information i could find
> 
> 3\. i hope u all are staying safe and healthy as much as possible during this worldwide pandemic and i hope this fic brings u some entertainment if u’ve been stuck at home or if u need a break from work or whatever it is. 🥰
> 
> 4\. thank u, as always, for reading, it means so much. comments and kudos are also appreciated. ❤️
> 
> come cry about baeksoo with me on [twitter](http://twitter.com/xingkais) | [curiouscat](http://curiouscat.me/xingkais)


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